


Executive Orders

by ZVArmy



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-06-06 16:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15199244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZVArmy/pseuds/ZVArmy
Summary: In order to turn Bobby Roode heel, he is given a storyline in which he dates Lucy Thorne, the Chairwoman of WWE. Will working closely together lead to an improbable romance blossoming between owner and employee?





	1. Chapter 1

_This story is a spinoff from La Arquitecta, however I'll do my best to write it in such a way that new readers can pick it up without needing to read the old story first._

* * *

Sitting in the boardroom at WWE headquarters, Charlotte Flair felt a little uneasy. She was relatively new to her job on the creative team, and as yet did not possess overwhelming confidence in her work. Creative meetings in particular were not something she enjoyed. Any minute now, Lucy Thorne, WWE's Chairwoman, would walk into the room and expect to hear some good ideas for the next couple of months of programming.

"Don't look worried, your idea is a good one," Hunter Helmsley said with a hint of a grin on his face. He was sitting next to Charlotte, with TJ Wilson sitting on the other side of him.

Since Lucy Thorne, an accomplished businesswoman, multimillionaire and passionate wrestling fan, had purchased a majority share in WWE and taken charge of the company, she had shaken up the way the company was run in a lot of ways. Among those changes was completely replacing the previous booking committee, apart from Hunter. At Hunter's recommendation, TJ had been promoted from road agent to Head of Creative as part of the restructuring.

Lucy hadn't been willing to stop there, however. She had pushed ahead with an idea to have two members of the active roster involved in the creative process. After some debate, Charlotte Flair and Bobby Roode had been chosen for the new roles. To avoid the obvious conflict of interest that would be presented by a wrestler working on their own creative, Charlotte was allowed to work only on storylines for male wrestlers, and Bobby was assigned to work for the women's division.

Only a couple of months into the role, Charlotte was about to pitch the first big idea that was her own brainchild, and she was feeling nervous about how it might be received by the boss, not least because the angle would involve Lucy herself appearing as an on-screen character for the first time.

"He's right, you've got this," TJ said. "Besides, you know Lucy doesn't bite."

Charlotte decided not to say that she would have agreed, until recently. When she had taken over as Chairwoman, Thorne had quickly won herself a reputation as someone who put her employees first. For example, in an incredibly popular move with the wrestlers, she had lessened the amount of live events on the WWE schedule in order to give the guys more time to keep their bodies healthy and rested and their minds happy, with more time to spend at home with their families.

Until recently, no one at WWE had been able to say a bad word about Lucy Thorne. Indeed, she was considered by almost everyone to be a brilliant manager of her people. She had an extraordinary knack for motivating people to give their all for her. A large part of that was down to the fact that it was obvious Lucy genuinely cared about her employees. She came across as fundamentally a good person, with admirable morals and values.

A recent example of those facts had been a picture that had gone viral among the online wrestling community. Cesaro had been at the very top of his game, and had been competing in the Universal Championship picture until he had blown out his right knee during a match. Knowing all too well that his injury was bad and would keep him out for months, killing the biggest push of his career, Cesaro had been in tears when the medical team had walked him back into Gorilla.

Lucy had been there immediately to give the tearful Cesaro a rather awkward one armed hug and to quietly say something to him. It was that moment that had been captured in the picture, and had tugged on the heartstrings of WWE's fans.

Yes, Charlotte thought, everything had been going amazingly well under the Thorne regime. But then, seemingly out of nowhere as far as Charlotte was concerned, had come the news that Lucy and her husband were divorcing. Rumours were that the split was fairly amicable, but even so, the boss had seemed to become more bristly, or Thorney, as the backstage joke went, in the few weeks since the divorce had become public knowledge. More than once, Charlotte had known Lucy to lose her cool over a creative decision that had ended up not working out, and when she went for it, she really went for it. Charlotte hoped this wasn't going to be one of those days.

"Thanks, guys," she said with an appreciative smile. "It's just that this is my first big pitch of an idea, and I'm kind of out of my comfort zone."

"We're here to back you up if you need it," Hunter said kindly, before adding, "Even though you won't."

Barely had he finished speaking when the door opened behind them and Lucy Thorne breezed into the room. The thirty six year old Chairwoman was immaculately dressed in a business suit as always. On this occasion it was a navy blue one, with a white blouse underneath. Her long brown hair was up in a ponytail – something of a rarity. She carried a leather-bound notepad in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

"Morning all. How are you?" Lucy asked pleasantly in her English accent, which she showed no sign of losing despite spending a lot of her time in America on business. She walked around the boardroom table to her seat on the opposite side from where her three employees were sitting.

All three offered greetings at the same time, then Hunter said, "We're all doing well, and we're quite excited by an idea that Charlotte's going to put to you."

Lucy had taken her seat and was in the process of finding the page she wanted in her notepad. While doing so, she glanced up at Charlotte and raised her eyebrows slightly in a positive manner. "You've been working on something of your own?"

"Well, it's my concept, but a couple of the guys have helped me to flesh it out," Charlotte said, meaning the staff in the writing department.

Finding the page of notes she had already started in relation to the current meeting, Lucy drew a line across the page with her expensive-looking fountain pen. "Then we'll come to that shortly," she decided. "First, let's talk about Rollins. Last time we got together there was a difference of opinion about whether to keep the Universal title on him at the Royal Rumble or to have him drop it to Balor."

"Right," TJ recalled. "Again, I really think the time is right to give Finn a run with it, and have him take it into Wrestlemania. He's never been more over, and the fans are dying for him to win it."

"Which is why I still say we keep it off him for a little while longer," Hunter said. "This program he's working with Rollins and Vega has been white hot. We don't need to rush the payoff."

The events leading Seth Rollins to this point quickly ran through Charlotte's mind. It had all began when Seth had won the Money in the Bank briefcase, or, more accurately, had been handed it by Zelina Vega, his real life girlfriend, who had climbed the ladder and retrieved it. Vega had been faced with the choice of giving the briefcase to Cesaro, her client at the time, or to Seth, who everyone knew she was in an off-screen relationship with. She had chosen Seth, and since aligning, the Rollins-Vega pairing had become the most hated duo in WWE.

"What you say is true," Lucy said to Hunter. "But, here's the thing. We've also talked before about getting Vega back working as a wrestler in her own right. I want to get started on that in the near future. She's such a good heel, I just can't get past wanting to use her as more than a manager."

"So you want to split Zelina from Seth?" Charlotte surmised.

Lucy nodded. "I do. But I don't necessarily want one of them to turn on the other. I'm thinking of a line in a backstage program of Seth's where he says Zelina is going to be focusing on her own career. From there they can just be book separately."

"Doable," Hunter acknowledged, without a great deal of enthusiasm. "But where does that leave Seth, and where does it leave the Universal title?"

Taking a moment to drink from her coffee cup, Lucy made them wait for it. "I've been thinking on this for some time," she said at length. "Thoughts on putting it on Bobby?"

Everyone knew she meant Bobby Roode, as Bobby Lashley would have been referred to as Lashley. Hunter glanced at TJ, both men with slightly surprised looks on their faces.

"Uh, that's a bit out of left field," TJ said. "Bobby's not had much momentum for a while now, even since we moved him back to Raw."

"Yes, because you talked me out of the idea of turning him heel," Lucy said with the meeting's first hint of irritation in her voice. "I told you he needed a turn, and I was right."

"You were," TJ admitted with admirable honesty.

"Ugh, if I can just cut in here?" Charlotte asked.

Lucy gave a hand gesture that indicated she could. "It's an open forum, you know that."

Charlotte took a sip from the glass of water that had been sitting on the boardroom table in front of her, beside the pages of hastily typed out notes that she had brought, but probably wouldn't need. She had her idea memorised well enough to talk about it without needing to read up on it.

"Thank you," she began, taking a deep breath that she hoped wouldn't be noticeable. "I'm glad you've brought up Bobby and his heel turn, because that is one of the key points for the idea I wanted to pitch."

"Oh, excellent," Lucy said, smiling warmly. "So, I assume we're all in agreement now that we need to turn Bobby heel?"

TJ nodded as Hunter said, "We are."

Lucy noted that down, obviously taking satisfaction in doing so. "Okay, Charlotte, continue," she instructed, looking back up. "How do we turn Bobby heel?"

Oh boy, Charlotte thought. This was the moment that she had not been looking forward to. "We align him with you," she announced, trying to sound confident about it.

"With me?" Lucy asked, initially surprised, before shaking her head. "We've been down this road before. I'm not going to make myself an on-screen character."

"We all think you should reconsider that," Charlotte said, hoping that Hunter would step in to back her up.

"Do you now?" Lucy queried, sounding less than impressed.

"Yeah, we do," Hunter said, to Charlotte's relief. "I do understand why you're against the idea, with no on-screen experience. But I really think you would love it if you gave it a chance. Everyone in this room knows you bought WWE because you've been a fan your whole life. You must have dreamed of being out there in the ring."

"Of course I did," Lucy said without annoyance. "And you're wrong, my concern isn't about my ability to act. I don't want Raw to become the Lucy Thorne show, that's my issue. We've got the fans right behind us with the way things are now. They mostly like me, thinking of me as the owner who has made the product they're watching better, and is continuing to make improvements across the board. Why ruin that by putting me on the show and turning them against me? It doesn't stack up to me."

Over the next ten minutes, Charlotte sat back and listened in admiration as Hunter talked the boss around to their way of thinking. When he put his mind to it, he really was a master of persuasion, she thought. Eventually, he had convinced Thorne that appearing on Raw would be the best thing to get the Bobby Roode heel turn that she wanted over, that there was huge potential in having the Chairwoman of WWE on Raw as a regular character, and that she would be able to play a very good heel.

"I swear you could have been a fucking second hand car salesman," Lucy said, a comment that everyone took as her consent to work the storyline as they laughed at her joke. Meanwhile, the boss wrote another note on her pad.

"Next question," Lucy said after a moment. "Why is the Lucy character aligning herself with Bobby Roode?"

"Because she's dating him," Charlotte ventured, wishing she had sounded a lot more confident about it.

Lucy studied Charlotte for a second that seemed to hang in the air for a lot longer. "You're taking the piss," was her very English verdict.

"No, I'm serious," Charlotte said. "The idea is that you've been seeing Bobby for a while. Maybe since your… uh…"

"Divorce," Lucy filled in testily.

"Right," Charlotte said awkwardly, deciding to press on. "It's been a while since there's been a romance angle, and what better way to turn Bobby heel that to have him in the Universal title picture, apparently for the sole reason that he's sleeping with the boss? It's got to be a guarantee to get heat on him."

"Hmm," Lucy said thoughtfully. "Let's say I agree to pull the trigger on this. Do we jump right in with the romance side of it like you're suggesting, or do I just align with Bobby and we slow build the romance?"

TJ spoke up to answer that one. "I think the best way to go about it is to shock them with something like you kissing Bobby the first time we see you together."

"And what is the plan for all of this to go down?" Lucy asked, her tone conveying that she had conceded the point.

Charlotte spent a couple of minutes outlining the idea that would see Lucy appear as a character on TV for the first time. Pleasingly for her, Lucy seemed receptive, nodding along as she wrote notes on her pad.

"Alright," Lucy said, finishing a sentence with a flourish of her pen. "I suppose before we go any further I'd better get Bobby in here and see what he thinks about all this."

While Lucy rang through to her PA to have Bobby sent up from the creative department to the boardroom, Charlotte found herself thinking that it was typical of Thorne to want to get his opinion on the storyline rather than just telling him what he was going to be given to do.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Bobby walked in. Having already spent some time downstairs with the other people in the room that morning, he only needed to greet Lucy. "Morning," he said pleasantly.

"Morning, Bobby. Have a seat," Lucy instructed warmly. As he obeyed, she got right down to the point. "We've just agreed on an angle for you that's going to see you turn heel, and you'll be in the Universal title picture."

"Sounds good to me," he replied enthusiastically, not there would have been any other likely response for someone whose character had been stuck in a rut for a while. "What's the angle?"

"You're going to be dating me," Lucy announced.

Charlotte noticed the little smile on the boss's face as she said it. It told her that Lucy was quickly warming to the idea the more she thought about it. What surprised her was that Bobby didn't say anything for a moment.

"I suppose I've slept with worse," he admitted eventually, with a cheeky grin on his face.

Silence descended for a second with Lucy seemingly trying to decide what she made of that. Somehow, Charlotte had matched Hunter and TJ in managing not to burst out laughing.

Lucy sniggered, then started laughing. Her laughter gave the green light for everyone else to laugh, which they simultaneously did. Lucy clapped her hands together in approval of the joke and said, "Yes. I'm going to enjoy this."


	2. Chapter 2

Driving through rural Connecticut, Bobby Roode realised that he was going to be early for his meeting. Today was the first time he had been invited to Lucy Thorne's house, which was why he had left himself plenty of time to make the unfamiliar journey. Half an hour before the agreed time of ten AM, the satnav in his rental car told him that he was five minutes away from his destination.

Due to having a busy afternoon of meetings scheduled with business associated who not connected with WWE, Lucy had announced that the creative meeting that was planned for the morning would have to take place at her home. As far as Bobby knew, he and Charlotte were the first members of the active roster to be invited out there. His inquisitive side was looking forward to seeing what the boss's house was like.

Another thing Bobby was looking forward to was talking about the romance angle that was imminently getting underway between him and Lucy. The week before, his push had started when he had entered the Royal Rumble match at number three, and had lasted all the way until the final three, going nearly an hour in the match. His heel turn, however, was not yet coming into effect.

Since Charlotte's proposal had been agreed to, there had been some dithering and confusion about how to start putting the idea of the supposed Roode – Thorne relationship across to the audience. Resolving that question once and for all was one of the items on the agenda for the upcoming meeting.

"You have reached your destination," the satnav announced.

Bobby saw a gateway just up ahead, on the left side of the road. The huge black metal gates were standing open. He turned his car in, and proceeded slowly along a driveway which took him through some tall trees. There was still no sign of the house.

The driveway curved to the right, then the scene opened up before Bobby. He was driving into a large courtyard which had a fountain in the centre of it, currently not in operation since there was half an inch of snow on the ground and the water would be frozen. Across the courtyard stood Lucy Thorne's mansion. It was a two storey Georgian style building with a dormer roof that looked like it had been recently replaced or refurbished. Off to the right of the courtyard was a detached triple garage. Bobby found himself wondering what ridiculously expensive cars might lie behind those three doors.

"Very nice," he muttered to himself as he parked up near to the grand entrance that had stone pillars either side of it to hold up the porch roof. He made sure to leave room for Hunter, TJ and Charlotte to park when they arrived. There had been no tyre tracks in the snow on the driveway, so he knew for sure that he had been the only person to travel to or from the house since the overnight snowfall.

"Jesus Christ," Bobby said when he stepped out of the car, a blast of freezing cold wind hitting him right in the face. Wanting to get back into somewhere warm as soon as possible, he rushed towards the front door.

Just before Bobby reached the house, the large wooden door opened. An attractive woman with long brown hair stood in the doorway, but it wasn't Lucy Thorne. For a second, Bobby felt on the back foot. Was he at the correct house?

"Good morning. You're here for the meeting with Ms Thorne?" the woman assumed in an English accent, helping Bobby out. He was talking to the hired help. Thorne actually had a maid working for her, even though that probably wasn't the right term, he thought.

"I am," Bobby confirmed, his breath visible in the cold. He decided it was appropriate to introduce himself. "Booby Roode."

"Please, come in," the woman replied, standing aside to admit him. She apparently did not consider her own introduction to have any relevance.

Bobby walked into an expansive entrance hallway, finding it furnished and decorated in a more modern style than the exterior suggested. He got the impression that the whole place had been gutted and started over when Thorne and her now ex-husband had bought it. "Lovely place, this," he commented appreciatively.

"Yes," the woman agreed, accepting the fact for what it was. "Please, follow me. The meeting will be taking place in the great room."

Walking along behind her across the hallway in the direction of the rear of the house, Bobby found himself smiling and shaking his head slightly. He had never heard of a room in a house being called a great room. Combined with some of the clearly very expensive artwork on the walls he was walking past, it was already a demonstration of how the other half lived. While he was a long way from poor, and had a house that a lot of people would be envious of, this was a completely different ballgame altogether. Everything was spotlessly clean, too, as well it should be if Lucy had staff working for her.

The woman pushed open a door and walking into the room beyond. As she did so, she announced Bobby's arrival. "Bobby Roode is here, Lucy."

Bobby might have noticed the fact that at home Lucy didn't mind being referred to informally if it hadn't been for the fact that his mind had been blown as soon as he walked into the room. The great room was no exaggeration, but what had really astonished him was that almost the entire wall opposite where he was standing consisted of a truly enormous window. The view from it was breath-taking. Snow-covered rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see, without so much as a single building anywhere in sight. It looked like Thorne's own piece of paradise.

"Wow," Bobby said emphatically as he turned to greet the boss, who was approaching from the far end of the room, where she had been sitting in a comfortable chair in front of a roaring fire that had the room delightfully warm.

"This was the first room I saw when we viewed this place," Lucy said with a smile that conveyed her pleasure at his reaction. "I stood and looked through that window, and I decided right away this was the place." Reaching Bobby, she offered her hand. "Thanks for coming. It's good to see you."

"Thanks for the invite," he replied as they shook, even though it had really been an instruction to come, not an invite.

"Sorry to have to drag you out here," Lucy said, seeming to actually mean it. "Sometimes running multiple businesses makes this kind of thing necessary. I'm sure you understand."

I wouldn't have a fucking clue, Bobby thought, but chose not to say. It wasn't just the fact that he was talking to the Chairwoman of WWE that made his usual wisecracks come less easily. There was also the fact that he found her ridiculously attractive, to the point where he felt a hint of shyness. Maybe it was the power. Maybe it was money. Maybe it was her considerable natural beauty. Maybe it was all of those things. Whatever the reason, he found Lucy hot as hell, and was definitely not going to complain about working the romance angle with her.

"I'll take your coat," the woman who had met Bobby at the door offered.

"Thanks, Jo," Lucy said to her as Bobby handed the coat over. "Some coffee would be good."

"Coffee coming up," Jo confirmed.

"Join me by the fire," Lucy said, another instruction disguised as an invite.

Following the boss across the room, Bobby noticed as he had done many times before what a sweet ass she had. It was obvious even when she was wearing suit pants. The thought occurred to him that someone had recently divorced this woman. Was he fucking mad? Bobby wondered.

But then, he knew from personal experience that marriages could fail between people who loved each other. His own marriage had broken down six months earlier, with the divorce becoming official just before Christmas. How nice that had been, he recalled, feeling a moment of sadness. At least there was one thing he had in common with Lucy.

"Have a seat," Lucy said as she sat back down in her chair, snapping Bobby out of his thoughts.

"Thanks. Sorry I'm a bit early," he said as he took a seat on one of the chairs opposite her. There were four of them arranged around a low table, which had some documents strewn across it. "I didn't know how much the snow might affect the journey time. The roads are quite clear, though."

"Nothing to apologise for," Lucy replied easily. Her gorgeous blue eyes held Bobby's, and he had to actively tell himself to stop thinking about her looks before he made an asshole of himself. "I was just reading up on the notes for the meeting," she explained. "Besides, the others will be here any minute."

"Really nice place you've got here," Bobby commented, looking around the great room. There was a large wooden table at the end of the room he had entered from, capable of sitting six people. He assumed that was where the meeting would take place.

His eye was attracted by a large painting of a World War Two era aircraft. He recognised it as being the same type of plane as the one that Lucy had arranged to fly over the stadium in England where the British Invasion pay-per-view had taken place. He recalled her saying something about her grandfather having served on those planes during the war.

"It's a good painting, isn't it?" Lucy said quietly, having seen where he was looking.

Bobby nodded. "It really is, especially for someone whose artistic talent goes as far as drawing a house as a rectangle with four windows, a door and a chimney on the top."

Lucy gave a single laugh at his joke, but there was genuine amusement in it. "Same," was her simple comment.

"I recognise it," Bobby said, meaning the plane. "It's the one you had fly over in England. You said your grandfather served on them, right?"

Lucy nodded. "It's an Avro Lancaster. They were used for the bombing of Germany, France, etcetera during the war. My granddad's plane, like hundreds of others, was shot down over Berlin with the loss of everyone on-board."

"Sorry," he said genuinely, looking her in the eye.

"Thank you. I just feel it's important to remember them, you know?"

Bobby realised she meant everyone who had died during the war. "I agree. Definitely."

"Hunter is here, Lucy," Jo announced as she walked back into the room, carrying a large tray with a pot of coffee, some cups and pretty much anything else that might be needed to fix everyone's version of a perfect brew.

"Thanks, Jo," Lucy said, getting up for her next greeting, scooping up her paperwork in a swift motion. As she got up, she motioned for Bobby to follow. Apparently it was time for them to convene at the table. He found himself thinking it was a shame. He would have liked to have chatted to her for a while longer.

First Lucy, then Bobby exchanged greetings with Hunter before sitting down at the table, the two men opposite the boss, who dumped her papers on the table in front of her and began making small talk by asking Hunter about how his drive out had been. Since Hunter had shown no reaction at all to the jaw-dropping view, Bobby assumed he had been out here before. That would also explain Jo using only his first name, and knowing his preference for coffee without asking.

By the time Jo had fixed three drinks, there had been a loud knock on the front door. Lucy glanced at her watch and said, "Good. At this rate we can start early."

As Jo hurried off to answer the door, Hunter spoke to Lucy. "I have good news. We've finally all agreed on a strategy for the Thorne/Roode relationship angle. Hopefully you'll be able to sign off on it today and we can get it started."

Charlotte and TJ's voices came from out in the hallway, introducing themselves to Jo. They had apparently arrived together. Everyone scheduled for the meeting was now in attendance.

"That sounds promising," Lucy said to Hunter as she rose to greet Charlotte and TJ.

Shortly, more greetings, handshakes and pleasantries had been exchanged – Lucy and TJ both commenting on the view - coffee had been fixed, and TJ had a laptop open in front of him to type up the minutes of the meeting as they went along. He had chosen the seat next to Lucy, with Charlotte sitting beside Hunter.

"Right then, to business," Lucy said. "Hunter just told me he's confident you've now got something I'll be happy with regarding this romance storyline. I really hope so, because I wasn't impressed with what you pitched last week."

There was no humour in that comment, giving Bobby the distinct impression that the previous week's discussion about the men's storylines had gotten a little heated.

"We went back to the drawing board, taking your comments on-board," TJ said.

"Alright then, take it from the top," Lucy instructed.

"The idea now is to try and convince the audience that your relationship with Bobby is not an angle, but a reality."

Lucy glanced at everyone around the table. Her interest had been piqued by that. She wasn't the only one. Bobby was surprised, and listened eagerly while TJ continued.

"The plan all along was to turn Bobby heel and get heat on him over the fact that he's sleeping with the boss to get ahead. What if, rather than that being the case with his character and your character, we can get people to believe that Bobby is really getting a push because he really is seeing you?"

"Yeah, that's good," Lucy said slowly. "So we don't get kayfabe heat on him, we get real heat on him and let that serve our purposes. I like that. Tell me how you plan to go about it."

Hunter had just taken a sip from his coffee. He set the cup down and handled the answer. "Step one would be to leak a supposed rumour that Bobby Roode and Lucy Thorne are dating. Since you're both currently well liked, it'll be believed and positively received, in my estimation."

"Seems likely," Lucy agreed with a nod.

"Step two is that we start pushing Bobby hard. We get him in the main event scene on Raw ASAP. It won't be long before the internet smarks start making a fuss about it."

Bobby knew that if the creative meeting had been taking place at WWE HQ he would not have been in attendance for this discussion about his own creative. He would have been summoned later, to replace Charlotte, when the time came for the women's division to become the focus of attention. For that reason he sat there and listened, keeping his mouth shut.

"Come on then, Charlotte," Lucy encouraged. "This was your idea to begin with; let's hear from you. How are we going to convince people I'm dating Bobby? Safe to say it's going to take more than some arsehole tweeting rumours around the place."

Charlotte giggled at that turn of phrase. It also brought a smile to Bobby's face.

"We convince them that Bobby's dating you by, uh, having Bobby date you," Charlotte said.

Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly and she looked at Bobby with kind of expression that said, "Am I going insane? Surely she didn't say that?"

Bobby shrugged in response, as mystified as she was.

"Let me explain," Charlotte said hurriedly. "We don't want people to think this is an angle, alright? So, we need to convince them that it isn't, even though it is. People need to see you 'dating.' I'm talking about having you arrive at arenas together. I'm talking about leaking out a picture of the two of you talking backstage at an arena or whatever from time to time. I'm talking about you having dinner together at a busy restaurant where you're almost certain to be noticed. I'm talking about you going to a movie premier together. Anything like that, really."

Everyone could see that the idea was a slam dunk. Lucy was smiling broadly. "I love it. That's some top level deception. It'll be like working for MI6 or something. You're saying Bobby and I will do everything a couple would do, obviously without actually being a couple."

"Well, not quite everything," Hunter quipped, drawing laughter from everyone.

TJ spoke next. "For a start, you'd need to act like a couple who aren't all that keen for it to be known that you're together. If we go from nought to one hundred instantly and you start throwing it in everyone's faces, it's going to look weird – out of character."

"Yes, that makes sense," Lucy agreed. "You all know how reluctant I was to become an on-screen character, but now? I'm actually looking forward to this. It sounds like a lot of fun to try and trick people like this. I think we've finally cracked it."

"Yes!" Charlotte said happily. Her first big idea was going to come to fruition.

"You've done good work on this," Lucy told her.

"Thank you. That means a lot."

While the chatter had been going on, the cogs in Bobby's mind had been turning. "If I may, I have an idea," he offered.

"Of course," Lucy said, with an encouraging hand gesture.

"Charlotte mentioned us arriving at arenas together for Raw. You fly back Monday nights to be in the office Tuesday. Why don't we change around my office days to Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday and Friday? That way, people will see us in airports together. I'm just thinking it's another way to backup what's already just been said about having people see us together."

"It's an excellent idea. Charlotte, any objection to switching your office days around, too?"

"No, not at all," Charlotte replied quickly, wanting to do anything necessary to support her big project now that the Chairwoman was happy with it. She knew that if it worked out well, a lot of the credit would be hers.

"Then we have a plan. TJ, mark this as approved," Lucy instructed.

"You've got it," he responded, a smile on his face.

To everyone's surprise, Lucy got up and said, "Bobby, come here. Let's see if we look like a convincing couple."

With a laugh, Bobby walked around the table to her and stood beside her. Wanting to be respectful of the boss above all else, he avoided touching her.

"Put your arm me or something, for fuck's sake," Lucy said with great humour. Everyone laughed as she went on. "No one's going to think we're a couple if you stand about like a spare prick at a wedding."

Bobby moved closer to Lucy and put an arm around her slender waist. At the same time, she put an arm around him, holding him tighter than he had imagined she would. His nostrils filled with the wonderful scent of her perfume, and he felt himself getting aroused. It was impossible for a hot-blooded man not to. Maybe this angle was going to be harder than he had imagined?

"How do we look?" Lucy asked the three still sitting at the table.

"Oh my God," Charlotte said, her hands over her mouth. "You look great together!"


	3. Chapter 3

Saturday night, an hour after leaving the arena where that night's live event had taken place, a tour bus pulled into a secure parking lot and parked up for the night. On the bus were Bobby Roode, Seth Rollins, his girlfriend Zelina Vega, Becky Lynch, Bayley and her girlfriend and their driver, Elena D'Agostino.

"Thanks, Daga," Bobby said to the attractive dark haired driver. "Another journey you manged not to kill us on, somehow." The banter was always strong between them. Luckily, they could both give as good as they received.

"I can still kill you after it," Elena replied in her heavily Italian accented English.

"I swear we have the same conversation after every journey," Bayley giggled. She was stretched out on a couch in the bus's living area. As Elena killed the engine and got out of the driver's seat, Bayley sat up to make room for her girl to join her.

"One day I really will kill him," Elena promised.

Seth and Zelina were relaxing on the other couch, opposite Elena and Bayley. "I've got an idea," Zelina said. "How about I kill the next person who mentions killing someone?"

Getting up out of his chair, Bobby chuckled along with everyone else. He covered the short distance to the refrigerator in the small kitchen area in a couple of paces. "Or I could make a peace offering. I have beer, beer, or beer."

"From those choices, I'll go for a beer," Seth said.

"I'll have one," Zelina said appreciatively.

Everyone else also agreed to have one, even Elena, who rarely indulged even a single beer when she would be driving the next day, and Bayley, who didn't particularly enjoy drinking.

Bobby passed around the beers, handing one lastly to Becky, who occupied the chair next to his. "So, I've got something to tell you all," he announced.

"Oooh, gossip!" Becky said in an exaggerated manner.

"Yeah," Bobby said as sat back down and relaxed into the chair. "They're giving me an angle that's going to be interesting to say the least."

"Yay! A push for you at last!" Bayley said excitedly. "I thought so, after how they booked you in the rumble. It's about time."

"Right," Zelina agreed. "They've given you pretty much nothing since The Vega Cartel ended."

"So, what's the deal?" Seth prompted.

"They've got me dating Lucy Thorne," Bobby revealed with a big grin on his face.

"Fuck off," Seth said with a laugh, assuming it was a rib.

"I'm serious. They've come up with an idea to turn me heel by pushing me while at the same time having people think I'm with Lucy. It'll be done subtly, not on the show, so hopefully people believe we're really together, not that they're being worked."

"I see," Zelina said thoughtfully. "So they want to get heat on you for pretty much the same reason Roman got it: everyone thinking you're the boss's chosen one and are being pushed to the moon because of it. You know, with all the smarks on the internet that has a real chance of working. They love something to get antsy about. Look at how easily they got worked that time by the Lesnar not showing up thing. Hook, line and sinker."

"Yeah," Seth chuckled.

Becky said, "So, uh, how are you going to convince people you and Lucy are dating? Easier said than done."

"That's obvious," Elena said before Bobby could answer. "They're going to pretend to date, yes?" she asked him.

He clicked his fingers and pointed to her in acknowledgement. "Daga's got it in one. Lucy and I are going to be acting like we're dating. I'm going to be flying back to New York with her after Raw on Monday so people see us together in the airport. That'll be our new routine; my office days have changed to Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll also be arriving at arenas together on Mondays, starting next week. We'll be trying to play it off like we're a couple who are together but don't really want to make a big deal of it."

"Sneaky," Seth said with admiration in his tone.

"A perfect assignment for you," Zelina mischievously said to Bobby. "Lucy seems like just your type."

"What, a woman?" Elena said, drawing laughter from everyone.

"I'm not actually dating her," Bobby pointed out, rolling his eyes. "I'm working an angle where I pretend to date her."

"Yeah, by dating her," Zelina said. "Talk about getting lucky. What a storyline that is to be given, flying around on private jets and everything all the time, living the high life."

Bobby endured some good-natured ribbing for a few minutes, having expected nothing less. When he had ridden out the storm, he posed the question that had been on his mind all day. "What I'd like to do is take some ideas to Lucy on Monday about other stuff we could be 'inadvertently' seen doing together. Anything that would fit in with the idea as I described it to you would be good, so fire some ideas at me if you have them.

And they did. Ten minutes later, albeit with a lot of laughing and joking about the thought of Lucy and Bobby doing some of the suggestions, he had some ideas in mind to pitch to the boss. He would never have admitted it to his group of friends, but part of him was quite nervous about Monday night. He should have been looking forward to a flight to New York on a private jet, but he knew next to nothing about Lucy Thorne on a personal level, and wasn't sure how she would react to him outside of the office environment where he was used to talking business with her.

"You alright?" Becky asked him quietly, the question hidden by the loud conversation going on between the other four.

Bobby realised she must have seen something in his expression that had given his nervousness away. Since his return to traveling on the tour bus, he and Becky had become good friends, to the point where he felt like he could be honest with her about what he was thinking without her making fun of him for it. "I'm just a bit uneasy about spending so much time around Lucy. It's not just that she's the boss, she's just…"

"Richer than us?" Becky guessed. "She is, but I really don't get the impression that she's the kind of person to treat people like she's better than them. Every time I've spoken to her she's seemed so down to earth it was like talking to anyone else in the locker room."

"You're right," Bobby had to admit. He could say the same about his encounters with Lucy, even though almost all of them had taken place in a business setting.

"Just go into it as relaxed as you can, and be yourself," Becky said with a reassuring smile. "Have fun. Crack your usual jokes with her. Rather than worrying about how she'll be with you, look at it the other way and get her to enjoy being with you."

Deciding that was good advice, Bobby nodded his head in appreciation and determined himself that she was right, that was exactly how he needed to approach Monday night. "Thanks, Becks," he said warmly.

"No problem. I can't wait to see pictures of the two of you together. You'll make such a good-looking couple."

Bobby couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Either way, she wasn't the first person to have said it.

* * *

Bobby had been instructed to come to Lucy Thorne's office an hour after Raw had ended so that they could leave together. Since most of the guys left as soon as Raw finished, it had been a fairly boring hour; something he was going to have to get used to, he realised. He knew that after every Raw, Lucy sat down with Hunter to review the show, discussing what had gone well and what hadn't while thoughts were fresh in their minds.

As he made his way to the office, Bobby considered, not for the first time, that it was odd that Lucy showed up for Raw every week, but was hardly ever in attendance for Smackdown. The two shows were sold to the audience as having equal status, yet as far as the boss's time was concerned, it wasn't the case. Responsibility for producing the blue brand lay with Hunter and Stephanie, who then answered to Lucy back at the office if there were any issues.

Having reached the office, Bobby rapped hard on the door with his knuckles. It was opened almost immediately by the young woman who had recently been hired as Thorne's PA, after the guy who had previously held the position had moved on. Bobby absently wondered why he had left, and if it had resulted from one of Lucy's furious meltdowns that had crept in since her divorce.

"Hello, Bobby," the PA said politely. They were on first name terms as a results of their interactions back at HQ. She was in her early twenties, with long brown hair. As always, she was wearing a smart business suit, this one a dark grey number.

"Hi, Maggie," Bobby smiled.

"Ready for the off?" Lucy called to him from within the office, sounding cheerful enough.

"Yep," Bobby said, watching the boss finishing packing her briefcase. There was no sign of Hunter, so the post-show meeting had already ended.

Lucy put a long grey coat on over her suit jacket, then pulled on a pair of black leather gloves. Finally, she was ready to go.

"I hate the cold," she explained to Bobby as she walked out of the door that he was holding open for her.

He fell in step beside Lucy, who had Maggie on the other side of her. It was only a short walk to the parking garage, where a car would be ready to take them to the airport and the awaiting private jet bound for New York.

"So, our first display as a so-called couple," Bobby offered, meaning when they got to the airport. There was a chance that a few fans might be there, flying out after Raw. With luck, someone might spot them and sneak a candid photograph, thinking they had a big scoop on their hands.

"Yeah," Lucy agreed, giving him a smile that had some mischief in it. "I'd be lying if I said I've not been looking forward to it."

Bobby had also noticed a little gleam in her eyes as she said it. He felt almost sure that she was referring to the fact that she was looking forward to duping the audience. But what if maybe, just maybe, there was more to it than that?

No, he told himself immediately. Of course there wasn't more to it, and he couldn't allow himself to start thinking like that. He was acting out a role as a character with Lucy, and nothing more.

"I'm going to need you next Wednesday," Lucy announced to him, intruding on his thoughts. "I've got an invite to the premiere of that new movie The Rock is in. It's the perfect opportunity for our first real sighting together. Naturally, there will be photographers on the red carpet."

"I'm there," Bobby assured her, immediately looking forward to an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood. How could he not? "Make sure you dress up though, I don't want to look like I'm batting below my average," he added, following Becky's advice and deciding to go for one of his customary cheeky wisecracks.

Maggie tried to be discreet about laughing, while Lucy fixed him with a sour look that he could tell she was faking. That was a very good sign. So was the way she decided to respond by firing back at him.

"Mate, you're not in my league," she assured him. "Convincing people I'd give you the time of day is going to be the hardest part of this."

"Savage," Bobby replied, a big grin spreading across his face.

Lucy laughed. "Remember that next time you mouth off. It's not a problem to put you in your place."

Within a couple of minutes, Bobby, Lucy and Maggie were in a luxury SUV with blacked out windows, driving out of the arena parking garage.


	4. Chapter 4

Bobby found himself feeling somewhere between amused and nervous as he got out of the SUV at the airport. The moment was at hand where he had to try and convince anyone who might randomly end up paying attention that he was dating Lucy Thorne.

During the journey, Bobby had rode in the front of the SUV, with Lucy and Maggie spending the whole trip discussing business in the back. He hoped they wouldn't keep on like that during the flight, or he was going to be seriously bored.

Since Lucy and Maggie had only flown in that morning and Lucy didn't appear on Raw, she had been able to travel light. Bobby was the only one who had a travel case for the driver to retrieve from the back of the vehicle.

"Right then," Lucy said with a little laugh of embarrassment that Bobby felt adorable. "Let's pretend we're a couple. Remind me again why I agreed to this storyline?"

"Because it was with me," he replied with faux smugness. "As soon as Charlotte said that, you went weak at the knees."

"Yes, that must have been it," Lucy said dryly, her voice laden with sarcasm. She thanked the driver, then it was time for them to head into the airport. There was no one around who looked particularly like a wrestling fan, but she decided to get the act going before they walked through the massive entrance doors into the check-in area. "Hold my hand," she instructed Bobby.

"You're the boss," he said, trying not to laugh. Pretending to date someone in public was going to be a tricky thing to get used to. He took her gloved hand in his, finding the leather soft and warm to the touch. To his frustration, making contact with her stirred something inside him. It was impossible to deny that he found her attractive, but he knew he had to be professional and avoid letting that fact show.

"I said hold my hand, not crush the bloody thing," she said, making him grin at the very English language. Her accent was just one more thing that he liked.

"You look cute together," Maggie opined, walking along just behind them.

"Shut it," Lucy ordered, not quite managing to avoid a laugh. "We need to find where the VIP lounge is."

"Oh, the VIP lounge," Bobby said, making like it was all a class above him.

"I'm going to end up whacking you before long," Lucy said. "Now stop trying to make me laugh."

"But if I was dating you, I'd be trying to make you laugh."

Lucy looked up at him for a moment, seeming genuinely lost for words. Her eyes had that glint in them again.

Fuck me, how did your husband give you up? Bobby thought. She was truly beautiful, and it was all natural, too. He could spend hours looking into those gorgeous blue eyes and not get bored. He wondered what her lips would taste like if he kissed them.

"Then you can continue trying to make me laugh," she decided, sounding awkward.

Bobby would have killed to know what she was thinking about in that brief moment of connection that had passed between them. Had her hand clasped his a little tighter, or was he imagining it?

"Uh, it's this way," Maggie said, pointing to a sign directing them to the VIP lounge. They had been about to walk in the wrong direction across the check-in area, which wasn't busy thanks to the lateness of the hour.

Bobby saw that the route they needed to take was going to lead them past a group of four guys in theirs twenties who were standing around and having a good laugh about something. There was no sign of any wrestling merch on any of them, but they all had coats on. They were certainly of the ideal age demographic for WWE, and had clearly been on a night out together somewhere. "Possible wrestling fans," he muttered to Lucy.

"I see them," she relied in a hushed tone. This time, she definitely had tightened her grasp on his hand a little. "Tell me a joke, quick. Make me laugh."

"What?" he floundered, put on the spot. They had already covered half of the distance to the group of men.

"Tell me a joke; the worst one you can think of."

"You're the boss," he said again, pointedly raising his eyebrows. With that, he launched right into it. "How do you know your sister is on her period?"

"What?" Lucy exclaimed, turning to him with a surprised smile on her face and her eyebrows now also raised. "I don't know."

"Your dad's dick tastes funny."

"Oh my God!" Lucy exclaimed, bursting into incredulous laughter right as they walked past the group of men. It was impossible for their attention not to have been attracted to the couple who were walking by hand in hand, both laughing loudly. "That is the most... There are so many layers of sickness to that, Bobby!"

Bobby laughed along with her. "You requested my worst joke. That came to mind."

"You certainly delivered," she assured him with another burst of laughter. "I'll never make that request again, trust me."

They reached the VIP lounge as she was speaking. To Bobby's pleasure, they didn't have to spend long in there at all. They were put through a security check identical to that undertaken before any flight, albeit with the advantage of not having to wait in line for it. When that was done, Lucy was informed that her plane was ready, and a staff members opened a door and escorted them on the short walk to the private jet that was going to be taking them home.

The black jet was lit up well enough by the airport's lights for Bobby to get a good look at it, not that planes interested him all that much. So long as the interior was luxurious, which he didn't doubt for a second, he would be happy. The engines were running, surprisingly quietly even though the aircraft was stationary. One thing he did notice was that the jet's tail had T5 painted on it in white lettering, below the familiar Thorne Enterprises logo.

"Don't tell me you have five of these things?" he asked, thinking that five private jets was an extravagance no matter how much money someone or their company had.

"Well, this is the fifth one Thorne Enterprises have owned," Lucy replied. Having walked slightly ahead of him, with no need to act as a couple anymore, she glanced back at him. "I currently have three. I sold T1 and T3. Three was a different model and I didn't like it. One was past its best."

"Unreal," Bobby mumbled. He was happy enough with the new car he had recently purchased, yet here was Lucy owning three private jets. "Why do you even need three?" he asked.

The answer never came, for Lucy had climbed up the steps to the plane. An impeccably-dressed stewardess was standing just inside the doorway ready to greet them. "Good evening, Ms Thorne," she said with the ultimate professional politeness.

"Hello, Camilla," Lucy replied pleasantly. "Are we ready to leave?"

"We are," Camilla confirmed.

"Good. Allow me to introduce Bobby Roode," Lucy said, gesturing to him as he followed Maggie into the plane.

"Good evening, sir," Camilla replied with a warm smile.

"Bobby is fine," he assured her. One thing he didn't like about business was all the formality. It made him feel awkward.

He was reminded of Lucy's astuteness when she quickly responded to what he had said, addressing Camilla. "Yes, we don't need to worry about all of that tonight."

"Understood," the stewardess said with a relaxed smile. "How about a glass of wine?"

Lucy looked at Bobby and gave him a dazzling smile. "She knows me so well. Join me in a glass?"

"Alternatively, we have beer, tea, coffee, pretty much anything you might like," Camilla offered.

"A beer would be great, thank you."

"Coming up," Camilla said. "Please take a seat and fasten your seatbelts. We'll be taxiing soon."

With that, Lucy walked over to a nearby table that had plush leather seating either side of it. She took off her coat and gloves and tossed them onto one of the seats as she exchanged a few words with Maggie, who went to sit further back, out of their way. Apparently she had work to be getting on with. Rather you than me at this time of night, Bobby thought.

"Take a seat," Lucy offered him, motioning to the opposite side of the table to where she was going to settle in.

"I could get used to traveling like this," Bobby said with a grin as he sat down, immediately finding the seat to be very comfortable. He shrugged his way out of his coat and set it aside on the seat next to him.

"I guess you'll be able to, now that we're into this angle," Lucy replied.

Bobby couldn't help returning to the conversation that had been interrupted, with his question about why one company needed to have so many private jets. "So, why three of these things?" he asked.

"Currently, one in this country, one in England, one in mainland Europe," she replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "My companies have a lot of executives who need to travel, often at short notice."

Well, that's me told, Bobby thought, supressing a grin. He decided that he wasn't going to bring up anything business related for the rest of the flight. While he was sitting with his kayfabe girlfriend for a couple of hours, he was going to try and get to know her a bit better on a personal level. Who knew, she might even show an interest in doing the same with him.

As Camilla arrived with the drinks, Bobby felt the plane slowly backing up to begin its taxi run. "Thank you," he said as a very appealing glass of beer was set in front of him, after Lucy received a glass of red wine.

"You're welcome. Can I get anything else for you?"

Both Lucy and Bobby confirmed that they were okay for now, so Camilla left them to it, after a reminder to fasten their seatbelts.

"I wonder if those lads were wrestling fans?" Lucy said while she buckled up.

"No idea, but if it's people noticing us together that you're thinking about, I think attending a movie premiere together next week will get that job done. There will be plenty of photographs taken, and they'll be online for all to see. Personally, I can't wait to appear on the red carpet with you on my arm," he added as a joke, grinning.

"I bet you can't," she replied, feigning vanity. "But make sure you dress for the occasion. I can't be made to look like I'm lowering myself."

Bobby sniggered. "You're savage, Thorne."

"Don't call me Thorne," she objected sternly, surprised and irritated by it.

"Sorry, maybe I should go with Margaret," he said cheekily. Having looked her up on the internet, he had found out her middle name.

"Don't you even think about it, Robert. I'll cut your bollocks off."

"Now that's not very ladylike, is it?" he teased.

Drinking from her wine glass, Lucy had a look in her eyes that he had seen before. She was enjoying the back and forth. And, unless he was very much mistaken, she was feeling a little charmed by it all. That was a very interesting development indeed.


	5. Chapter 5

"I suppose we should drink to something," Lucy said, looking at her glass of wine, twirling it slowly between her fingers.

"How about drinking to being divorced?" Bobby suggested, not even sure himself why he had said it. He saw Lucy's eyebrows raise in surprise.

"You're divorced too?"

"Yep," he replied philosophically. "It wasn't a nasty break up. We just sort of drifted apart. I was hardly ever there. Although your schedule changes helped a little with that, it wasn't enough for her by that point. We decided it was best to part on amicable terms before things got even worse. So, yeah, we got a divorce. It was finalised a couple of months back."

"I'm sorry," Lucy said quietly, real feeling in her voice.

One thing everyone liked about the boss was that she genuinely cared about people, Bobby thought. Then he saw Lucy look down and take a ragged deep breath. There was no way that reaction was for his brief divorce story. "You okay?" he asked with concern.

Lucy took another deep breath before managing to look up and say, "Yeah. It's just that your story is so similar to mine. I can't pretend it doesn't hurt me a huge amount that my marriage failed. We were so in love, but like you said, we drifted apart. You can have all the money you want, but it doesn't make you..." She let her voice trail off.

"Happy," he finished, taking her left hand that had been resting on the table and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Only after it had happened did he think that it might not have been a good idea to touch the Chairwoman like that.

"Yeah," she sniffed. She took her hand back, but without any sign of irritation with his gesture. "Look, can we talk about something else, Bobby?"

"Absolutely. But we need to drink the toast first."

"Alright. To being lonely and single," Lucy said morosely, raising her glass.

Bobby grunted a laugh. "To being lonely and single."

They both drank, Lucy taking some time over it in order to compose herself. "Not how I expected to spend the night, burdening you with my personal shit."

"You're not burdening me," he assured her. "And anyway, if we're supposed to be a couple, we ought to know some things about each other. If we somehow ended up in a situation where a question was asked that we ought to know, yet we don't, that's pretty much the angle rumbled."

"Yeah," Lucy said slowly, realising he was right. "And if that happens, it's dead in the water, and so is your heel turn."

Bobby took another hit from his beer. He knew from experience that Lucy was the kind of person who liked to speak directly, and to be spoken to in the same manner, albeit with the appropriate respect. With that in mind, he posed his first question, deciding to try and add a little humour. "Alright, Miss Three Private Jets. Where did all your money come from? How did you start Thorne Enterprises?"

Her lips had moved into a faint smile at the name he had used for her. She covered it by sipping from her wine glass. "I didn't start Thorne Enterprises, it was my father's company," she explained. "I inherited it from him when he took early retirement at age fifty two. He had stress-related health concerns, so I, as his only child, ended up in at the deep end as Chairwoman ten years earlier than I probably should have been. Honestly, my biggest annoyance is people who think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and have never had to work for a living."

"I've always found you very down to earth," he responded, simply being honest rather than trying to flatter her.

"Thank you, I appreciate that," Lucy said warmly.

"So what was your first job, before you took over the company?" Bobby asked.

"First job? I worked three months as a cleaner at a Thorne company's office in Leicester," she reported, showing absolutely no embarrassment about it, which Bobby considered to be to her credit.

"Not what I expected," he admitted.

"My dad made it perfectly clear to me from a very young age that having money didn't make us better than people who didn't have it. That's why you'll never see me talking down to my employees or treating them like shit. Everyone has a right to be treated with a basic amount of respect. Like I said, I've been there and done jobs from bottom to top. The people who do any of those jobs day in, day out are just trying to support themselves and their families."

"Starting as a cleaner, though," Bobby commented, now halfway down his beer.

"Yeah. I've been there scrubbing toilets and cleaning urinals. Then I moved on to being a trainee receptionist and admin assistant, running around doing photocopies and making the tea."

Bobby found it very admirable that she had worked her way up like that, but he opted not to say so, fearing patronising her. "And now you own WWE," he said instead, reverting to the topic he was most comfortable with: wrestling.

"A controlling share at least," she nodded.

"Why?" he asked simply.

"Why what? Why did I buy into WWE?"

Bobby nodded.

"Primarily? I wanted to turn it around. While profits were good, I was watching as a fan and the content was shit. People around the world sit there at home and say they could do better themselves. I believed it too, and I had the money and the drive to actually have a go at it, if I could get Vince McMahon to sell to me."

"Now that's a story I really want to hear," Bobby said. His beer glass was almost empty. As if in possession of some kind of sixth sense, Camilla appeared at the table.

"Can I get you another beer, Bobby?"

"Sure, thanks," he smiled.

"And I'll take a top up," Lucy said, handing over her wine glass. She moved on to responding to what Bobby had said. Frustratingly for him, the interruption had made dodging giving him a real answer easier for her. "Let's just say he liked my vision of the future. We made certain guarantees to each other, and we got a deal done." To Bobby's surprise, she moved on to ask a question about him. "Enough about me for one night. How did you get into wrestling?"

Over the course of them drinking their second drinks, Bobby told her how he had started out wrestling on his school team, before getting into wrestling in gyms and such for a few bucks a night, hoping to be spotted by someone who would give him a shot at something better. He enjoyed telling the story to the boss, not failing to notice her genuine interest. She hadn't merely asked to kill a few minutes of the flight.

The sound of a phone ringing cut into the conversation. It was coming from the back of the jet. Camilla was quick off the mark to answer it.

"My phone calls get diverted to the plane," Lucy explained to Bobby as she got up to go back and take the call.

With nothing else to do, Bobby subtly eavesdropped on her side of the conversation, idly thinking that he hadn't known there was technology to make and receive phone calls from a plane. But then, if it was new technology, Thorne could definitely afford to have it.

"Lucy Thorne," he heard.

"Oh, hello, Eric. How are you?" she asked the caller politely.

"I'm well. No, don't worry about it being late. I'm flying back to New York."

"Yes, my calls get diverted to the plane. So, you've thought about the offer?"

"Well, yeah, Kurt has been Raw GM for some time. As I said when we spoke last, I think it's time to freshen things up. You were my first choice."

That caught Bobby's attention. She was talking to someone who was a potential replacement for Kurt Angle as Raw's general manager. She had addressed the caller as Eric. Damn, he thought with a smile. She was looking at bringing Eric Bischoff back. That would be sweet, in his opinion.

Lucy started clicking her fingers rapidly while talking, summoning Maggie over to her. Bobby watched while the PA got up and scurried over there. She brought something up on the tablet and showed it to Lucy. An appointment was made for the coming Friday for Eric to go to the office for a meeting. With that, the call was ended with a wish of goodnight.

Lucy exchanged a few words with Maggie before heading back over to the table, where Bobby was trying to look like he hadn't been listening.

"I guess that's a problem we didn't foresee with this idea," she said as she sat down. "Anything private or business related you overhear while you're with me, it goes no further, understand?"

"You got it," Bobby said, giving her a salute. "But I didn't..."

"Save it," she said dryly before his lie could go any further. "I could tell you were listening. I wasn't born yesterday. Yes, Eric Bischoff is interested in coming back as Raw GM. And if I see it mentioned anywhere, your arse won't hit the ground on the way out the door."

"Oh, I love it when a bitch gets mean," Bobby replied, picturing the exact look of surprise that he immediately saw on her face. It was comical how she didn't know how to react when he said something like that. Given the informal setting they had been enjoying, he had figured he could get away with it.

"Are you going to be like this Wednesday night?" she demanded after a moment, referring to their big 'date' at the movie premiere. "Giving me attitude, and honestly, I still can't believe that joke you told me earlier."

Bobby shrugged, inwardly containing the urge to laugh. "You told me to hold your hand, I did. You told me to tell you my worst joke, I did. I don't know what you want from me?"

"What I want is for you to do a convincing job of acting like you're my boyfriend in front of those cameras," she ordered with a sternness that didn't have her heart in it.

A big grin spread across his face. "Now that I can definitely do."


	6. Chapter 6

"You handsome bastard," Bobby said, surveying himself in the mirror in his five star hotel room. The accommodation was the latest mighty fine perk of working the romance angle with the boss. Had anyone ever been given a better angle than this? He seriously doubted it.

Bobby had had humour in mind with his comment, but at the same time, he was happy with the way he looked for his upcoming so-called date with Lucy Thorne at the movie premiere. He was wearing a light grey suit with a dark grey shirt under it. The look was completed by a loosely-knotted tie that was a shade of grey in between the colours of the suit and the shirt.

Now that he was happy with his appearance, it was time to get down to the lobby to wait for Lucy and the car that would take them to the premiere. She had given him a time to meet her, and he knew full well that he ought to be down there early. Having the boss, or his supposed girlfriend, standing around waiting for him was not a good impression to send either to her or to anyone else who might happen to be paying attention. That was the most important thing to keep in mind the whole night; he and Lucy had to look like they were in love with each other.

Satisfying himself that he had everything he needed, he left the room and made his way down to the lobby. When he got there, there was no sign of Lucy. Good, he thought, he had arrived before her. He went and stood out of the way of the elevators, keeping his eye on them for when Lucy arrived.

The wait lasted a few minutes, until just past the agreed upon time. As soon as the one of the elevator's doors opened and Bobby set eyes on Lucy, he knew the wait had been worth it. Boy had it been worth it. She looked so incredible it was hard to stop his chin hitting the floor.

Lucy smiled as she walked over to him. She was wearing a vintage style black and white checkered dress with a sweetheart neckline and pencil skirt. A black leather belt accentuated her waist, matching the black leather opera gloves that shone under the bright lights of the lobby. Her hair was styled in loose curls reminiscent of those worn by the old-time Hollywood actresses. Her lips were a glossy red.

"How do I look?" she asked, reaching up to give him a peck on the cheek, already in girlfriend mode.

"Absolutely mind-blowing," he replied without any need for acting. "Not what I expected at all, but wow!"

"I love vintage looks," she said happily. "I don't get the chance to dress up often, so I wanted to make the most of tonight."

Bobby nodded before spreading his hands a little. "What about me? Acceptable boyfriend material?"

"You might be if you knew how to do a tie up properly," she said with a glint of humour in her eyes. Bobby considered it a good thing that she would fire a barb at him, since he had done the same to her several times over the past few weeks.

Lucy took it upon herself to fix his tie. She pulled the knot tighter, and placed it properly in the middle of his collar. "That's better," she decided. "Now, hold my..."

"You don't have to tell me how to be a boyfriend," he cut in with a grin. "I've done it before a time or two."

A big smile appeared on her face, telling him that his words had amused her. He imagined looking at them from afar. Yeah, he'd probably buy that they were a couple, he decided as he took her gloved hand in his. He found the leather very smooth and soft to the touch. When factoring in the shiny quality they had, he found them a very striking and very attractive finishing touch to her outfit. "I like these gloves a lot," he said. "Why do I get the feeling they were expensive?"

"Because they were," she replied simply. "If you're going to buy leather, buy top quality." She used her other hand to point up ahead, indicating a man in a black suit holding a card with her surname on it. "There's our driver. So, you like a girl in leather do you, Bobby?"

Bobby felt something stir inside him. She was flirting with him a little, even though there had been no reason to do so for the sake of acting. The fact wasn't lost on him at all. He decided to go with it and answer honestly. "Very much so. You look sexy at the best of times, but in leather? Oh, boy."

Lucy had fairly light skin – typical English – and therefore blushed easily. To Bobby's delight, her cheeks started to redden. Infuriatingly, they reached the driver before he could say anything more.

"Evening. I'm Lucy Thorne," she said, removing her hand from Bobby's so that she could shake hands with the driver. "This is Bobby, my partner."

"Evening, ma'am, sir," the driver said with accompanying handshakes.

While he tried to keep his face impassive, Bobby's heart had started beating faster at what Lucy had said. He understood why it had happened, but even so, having this seriously hot, seriously kind-hearted, seriously powerful, seriously rich woman call him her partner had made his chest feel a little tight.

"This way, please," the driver said, turning to lead the way out of the hotel.

As they continued walking, Bobby quickly took Lucy's hand back, wanting the feeling of it in his a much more important factor in his desire than acting out the role of being her partner. He noticed a little smile of what he thought might be satisfaction on her face. Just how much was she enjoying this?

"Look over there," she whispered as secretively as she could.

Bobby followed her eye line and saw a couple of photographers standing not far from the hotel's entrance. They were there to get pictures of any famous faces they might see heading for the premiere.

"Play it cool," Lucy whispered. It was a reminder that they were supposed to act like a new couple who didn't particularly want to go public. Flaunting themselves for the cameras would look unnatural and might arouse suspicion among those fans – and there had to be some out there – who thought the first few Roode/Thorne relationship rumours that had started to appear thanks to engineered leaks by the company were part of a work.

As they walked past the photographers, Bobby made a point of not looking directly at them, but he could hear their cameras clicking away as shots were taken. It struck him that he didn't know how recognisable Lucy was to the world's media. She was a rich businesswoman, but was she a famous face? He couldn't remember having seen her before she purchased WWE, but then he never paid attention to business news. Famous face or not, she couldn't fail to catch the eye tonight, looking as stunning as she did.

The drive to the premiere was a very short one. Even with traffic, it was less than ten minutes from the moment they got in the car to when they were getting back out of it again, set for their walk on the red carpet.

"I've never done this before," Bobby admitted quietly to Lucy. "Apart from at the WWE Hall of Fame of course."

"It's no different," Lucy assured him. "Just walk along, smile at everyone, then when we get to where they're doing the photographs, we pose a few times. Then the shitty part is done and we can go watch the movie."

Bobby took her hand again as they made for the red carpet. He noticed that there was ready acceptance on her part. She gripped his hand quite firmly, seeming to enjoy doing so.

"There are a lot of people here," he observed as they reached the red carpet. There was a real throng of humanity behind the barricades. Presumably the vast majority of them were there to see The Rock, who was the movie's big star. Not many of them seemed interested in either him or Lucy as they walked by, a fact that he was kind of glad about. He wanted to get inside, out of the cold, and settle down for the movie.

"Thank God not many seem to recognise us," Lucy muttered to him behind her smile.

Bobby was about to reply, but things changed before he got the chance. They were approaching the photographer's area, where backdrops with promotional images from the movie had been erected.

"Lucy!"

"Lucy! Over here!"

"Lucy!"

Apparently she was a known face, Bobby realised amid the chorus of her name from the photographers. That was a good thing, as far as the romance angle was concerned. The pictures that were about to be taken would soon be appearing online.

"Bobby! This way!" someone else shouted, doing his confidence a lot of good. At least someone knew who he was.

"Here we go," Lucy said quietly before they posed for the first time, standing hand in hand and smiling.

"Over here!" a man yelled.

Lucy and Bobby turned in that direction for more pictures.

"Can you put your arms around each other?"

They complied, and the flashbulbs went off again.

"How about a kiss?"

Oh, shit, Bobby thought. Turning to face Lucy, he saw the same thought flash in her eyes. But they both knew they had to do it, and make a convincing job of it. It would look too weird not to.

Leaning down, Bobby locked lips with Lucy. As soon as he got a taste of her, he felt something like a bolt of electricity pass through his body. She didn't just kiss him once either; she really went for it, coming back twice for more. During the last kiss, she even let out a low moan of pleasure. There was no way that had been faked. She had enjoyed the kiss as much as he had, and it had definitely been his best ever first kiss with someone. He knew it was going to play on his mind for a long time to come. In fact, he thought, she had blown his mind.

Sexual tension had been building up inside him ever since he had set eyes on her back at the hotel, and the kisses had ratcheted it up to one hundred. He felt himself hardened and his balls aching with desire. He wanted to fuck her so bad in that moment, but not only could he not do that, he couldn't do anything at all. They had to move on into the cinema to make way for the next couple to be photographed.

"Well, I think that was convincing enough," Lucy said as they continued walking, sounding a little breathless.

"You're a good kisser," Bobby risked, anxious to see what reaction it would get. Considering the little moan of enjoyment that had escaped her, he definitely believed she had felt the same kind of electricity in the moment.

"Shhh," she told him in a very noncommittal manner.

It was impossible for Bobby not to be frustrated. This angle had a lot of perks, but he knew now that he was in big trouble. He had it bad for Lucy Thorne, and with that being the case, pretending to date her was going to be such a hard thing to do. He would have given everything to be able to read her mind in those moments to know what she thought of the kiss. Was she regretting getting carried away? Or was she wishing they could kiss some more, while telling herself that it was inappropriate to do so? Whatever she was thinking, he knew he was on treacherous ground. One false move on his part and he was overstepping a line in the worst way, and with his boss at that. There was only one way he could possibly play it: cautiously. If anything else was going to happen, Lucy had to lead the way.

While they got themselves fixed up with some food and drink and went and found their seats in the cinema, there was little chatter between them. Bobby got the impression that Lucy was preoccupied by the kiss, knowing full well that there had been more in it than acting. Or was he imagining that because he wanted it to be the case? With an inward groan, he cursed the situation for being so frustrating.

"It's been a long time since I came to the cinema," Lucy said quietly once they were settled into their seats.

Bobby found it a strikingly sad thing to hear. She was obviously so focused on her business dealings that she didn't get much time to do the simpler things in life. That probably went a long way towards explaining the failure of her marriage. In his favour was the fact that they needed to be seen reasonably often interacting as a couple. "Well, we should make sure we do stuff like this," he said. "Cinema, bowling, walking along the beach with an ice cream…"

"It's fucking February," Lucy giggled.

He laughed. "Obviously I didn't mean we should do that one tomorrow, did I?"

Lucy laughed also. "Fair enough. But you're right, we should do things that couples do. Couples that make the proper time for each other at least," she added sombrely, pretty much confirming his suspicion. He knew how she felt, having been in a very similar situation himself with his ex-wife.

Before long, the seats were all occupied. Before the movie began, several members of the cast walked into the room and stood in front of the big screen to thank everyone for their attendance and to briefly talk about the movie. Bobby made sure to look like he was paying attention, when in fact he wasn't at all interested in what was being said. He wasn't even bothered about the movie. If it hadn't been for being required to attend this event with Lucy, he probably would never have even watched it.

Lucy's hand was resting on the arm separating their two seats. Without consciously thinking about it, Bobby took it. He couldn't get away from how nice it felt to have her hand in his. The warmth, smoothness and softness of the leather glove against his skin as he moved his fingers slowly against it was a surprising turn on that he never would have expected to experience. Lucy even responded to his touch slightly by moving her fingers. Paying attention to that was a lot more enjoyable than whatever The Rock's female co-star was bleating on about.

"You like that, huh?" Lucy whispered to him after several minutes, almost making him jump.

"What?" he asked, playing dumb to hide his panic at being caught out.

"You keep holding my hand, and you're obviously enjoying it. You really do like leather, huh?"

"Well, uh, like I said earlier, I like these gloves," he admitted as he let go of her hand in embarrassment. "Leather is always nice, and those things are sexy as hell. They feel so soft and smooth, and…" he stopped himself rambling, realising he was embarrassing himself further.

"Nice to know something you like," Lucy grinned, turning to look at him. She reached up and brushed his cheek with her fingers. "What if I gave you a hand job with them?"

Bobby felt like his heart had stopped beating. Talk about being upfront! Was she serious? Holy shit!

"Your face!" Lucy exclaimed under her breath after a second, covering her mouth with her free hand to stifle a laugh. When the moment had passed, she lowered her hand and gave him a devilish grin. "What, you think you're the only one who can catch someone off-guard with an inappropriate comment?"

"Touché," Bobby muttered, feeling his face flushed and his penis rock hard. As if the kiss hadn't given him enough to feel frustrated about. Now Lucy had planted the image of her giving him and a hand job with those seriously sexy gloves on. There was going to be only one thing for it when he got back to the hotel room, he thought. Sadly, she wouldn't be there to do it for him.


	7. Chapter 7

"What if I gave you a hand job with them?" Lucy had asked Bobby at the movie premiere nearly a week ago, after she had found out how much he had liked the elbow length leather opera gloves she had been wearing.

The comment had been made as an attempt – a successful one – to leave him dumbfounded by what she had said, in retaliation for him having done so to her on a few previous occasions. The problem she had was that ever since she had said it, she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. What a frightfully inappropriate thing to say to an employee, even in jest. Even worse was the fact that she could imagine herself performing the act she had teased him with.

The truth of it was that she found everything about Bobby Roode attractive. He looked great, being just her type; he had a brilliant sense of humour; he looked at a lot of things in life in a similar way to her, and they got along great on a personal level. Since day one of this romance angle, there hadn't been a shred of awkwardness between them. It had been like they were actually dating. Hell, it had been better than some of the dating experiences she'd had.

Then there was the kiss. Oh, man, the kiss, Lucy thought. She could still remember the feeling of warmth and electricity that had shot through her when she had kissed him not once, but three times for the benefit of photographers. Bobby was an incredible kisser, and she had longed for more ever since.

Still there was an even worse problem. A couple of nights back, she had actually dreamed about giving him the hand job she had teased him with, delighting him with every masterful touch with her leather-clad hands. And after she had finished him off, he had moved on to orally pleasuring her, at which point her phone had rang and woken her up. Bastard thing!

It all had to stop, though, she thought, angry with herself. Bobby was an employee. This was an angle. They were not dating for real. She wasn't even ready for a relationship, so soon after her divorce. She was sure he wasn't either, since he was also recently divorced.

"Is it nice?" Bobby asked her.

Lucy had no idea what he was talking about. They had come to a restaurant for a late dinner after Raw, in the hope that wrestling fans would be eating in the same place, leading to some more kayfabe trickery. They had been in luck, seeing at least two groups of people in WWE merch in the restaurant as they had entered. They were waiting for their appetisers, so Lucy wasn't sure what Bobby was getting at with his question. He couldn't have been talking about food, and she had already told him she liked the wine.

"Is what nice?" she asked.

"That planet you're orbiting around. You look like you're a million miles away."

Lucy managed a smile before going with the first lie that came to mind. "I was trying to figure out why this angle hasn't started to get the reaction we wanted and expected it to."

"Yeah, Daga was showing me on the bus the other day," Bobby said thoughtfully.

When the photographs of Lucy and Bobby kissing at the movie premiere had gone public, rather than being enraged at him for dating the boss, the vast majority of the fan base had reacted to the pairing with acceptance and delight. People had made comments about them making a great couple, looking amazing together, looking happy. Thinking back to some of the tweets that her personal assistant had shown her, Lucy clearly recalled one comment in particular. It had been posted underneath a picture taken just after she had kissed Bobby. "Look at how she looks at him," it had said, followed by a bunch of heart emojis. She had to admit, it did look like their was love in her eyes in the picture.

"Maggie tells me the term is 'shipping'," Lucy said. "People are shipping us. They're not supposed to be shipping us. We've been pushing you like crazy for a month now. They're supposed to have put two and two together and gotten pissed off about it."

"I know, but they haven't," Bobby shrugged. "They like us together. When I was out there tonight on Raw, I don't know if it got picked up by the microphones, but I heard a few people chanting Lucy Thorne while I was cutting my promo. I got the impression they wanted to see us together on-screen."

"Jesus Christ," Lucy sighed. "I let Hunter and Charlotte talk me into this being a good idea as a way to turn you heel. It doesn't seem like it's working out that way. Maybe we should have a meeting tomorrow and see what we're going to do about it."

She watched Bobby consider that for a moment before shaking his head. "Obviously it's your decision, but I'd say let's carry on as we are for a while and see where it leads."

"Meaning?" she enquired after taking a lengthy sip from her wine glass.

"Meaning it wouldn't be the first time an angle started out one way and ended up going in another direction thanks to how the audience received it. It can be annoying, but it's part of the business. If they want to get behind us, let them get behind us. What's wrong with a positive romance angle? If we end up being face instead of heel, we'll have to come up with another angle to suit that."

"No," Lucy said stubbornly, feeling her temper on the edge of flaring up. She realised herself that it was becoming a tendency lately when things didn't go the way she wanted. "Hunter and Charlotte sold me this bill of goods. They can make it work the way it was supposed to. They need to come up with a way to get people to start rebelling against your push. Maybe we put the Universal Championship on you or something."

Bobby sat and worked on his drink in silence, which told Lucy that he had picked up on her anger also. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. She wasn't going to ruin the meal. Fixing the angle could wait until they were in the office. Another question came to mind as she thought back to what Bobby had said a few moments earlier.

"Who's Daga?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, she's our tour bus driver, and Bayley's girlfriend. Her name's Elena, but everyone calls her Daga."

Lucy immediately remembered seeing pictures on Instagram of Bayley with an attractive dark haired woman, obviously her girlfriend. Now she had a name to go with the face. "What's she like?" she asked.

"She's a very fiery, hot-tempered Italian. But when you get to know her? She's a very loyal, very caring friend. That girl would do anything for any of our little crew. Hey, while we're on the subject, I've been telling Bay to speak to you about this for a while. You know those new security measures you put in place a while back, requiring everyone to have a scannable photo ID card to get backstage?"

"Yeah," Lucy said slowly, unsure where this was going.

"Daga didn't get one, obviously because she's not a WWE employee. Having said that, she used to go into the locker room with Bay sometimes and the girls liked her. I've been encouraging Bay to ask you if there was something you could do. But you know Bay, she's shy at the best of times."

Lucy found something endearing about Bayley wanting to have her girlfriend with her backstage. There was certainly no harm in having her in the locker room. "I'll get it taken care of," she promised.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Bobby said with a smile.

"You're welcome," Lucy said, glad of the distraction that had allowed her to cool off from her annoyance about the creative not going to plan.

Their appetisers arrived and Bobby moved the conversation on to things of a more personal nature. Since they were spending a lot of time with each other of late, it was only natural that they had been getting to know each other. Bobby's stories about his childhood or teenage years always made her laugh. He really did have a gift for telling stories in an engaging and humorous way that she really enjoyed.

Not only was he a good story teller, Bobby also made a good listener. Lucy found herself telling him about events from her younger years that she hadn't thought about for years. It struck her as they got up to leave the restaurant that the hour and a half they had been there had really flown by. Angle or not, she really did like spending time with Bobby. He was good company.

"Thanks for that," Bobby said, pushing his chair back under the table, referring to the fact that she had charged the whole check to WWE as expenses.

"You're welcome. I could hardly drag you out with me to work an angle and have you pay money for the privilege."

"I would do, though," he replied, deliberately making it sound as corny as possible.

"Oh, God," Lucy said as she theatrically cringed, making Bobby laugh. She had elected to dress down a little for this particular Monday night, knowing in advance that they would be going out for a meal after Raw. After the conversation at the premiere, she hadn't been able to help herself putting a leather jacket on. If Bobby had a thing for leather, she would keep giving him something to enjoy looking at. Annoyingly, she had forgotten to bring any gloves. That finishing touch might have been the perfect one from his point of view if the other night was anything to go by.

"You like?" she asked, teasing him a little as she slipped the jacket on.

"I don't think there's ever a time I look at you without liking what I see."

That's the ball well and truly back in my court, Lucy thought, feeling herself blushing. Infuriatingly, he was starting to get quite a knack of doing that to her. She saw a little grin on his face. He was pleased to see her cheeks reddening, which only made the embarrassment worse for her.

Bobby laughed. "I love it when you blush like that. Especially when it comes right after you tried to get me."

"Just move," she ordered as sternly as she could manage with a smile on her face, pointing towards the exit.

"You're the boss," he said, leading the way.

Following him across the restaurant, Lucy had so many different thoughts going through her mind. She was having a great time with Bobby. But in some ways, that wasn't a good thing. She was feeling things that she shouldn't be feeling. They were supposed to be acting like they were dating, not actually dating. Yet she felt like she had just been on a very real date, and a good one at that.

Bobby held the door open for her when they reached the exit, allowing her to leave before him. As she walked outside into the cold night air, she saw a group of four men standing nearby, possibly waiting for an Uber. Two of them had WWE merch on. They had obviously had a friend's night out at Raw, followed by a meal.

Lucy had called her driver a few minutes earlier to tell him to bring the car to the front of the restaurant, ready for the drive to the airport where the private jet was ready and waiting. She spotted the car parked a few spaces down the street, in the opposite direction to where the guys were standing. In a split second decision, she opted to put a show on for them, feeling confident that Bobby would be quick to pick up on her acting and go with it.

"Thank you, baby," she said, turning to face him with a happy smile on her face. "That was a lovely meal."

If Bobby had felt any surprise, he didn't show it. He reacted perfectly naturally, taking her in his arms and saying, "My pleasure, sweetheart. Glad you enjoyed it." With that he leaned in for a kiss.

As soon as their lips touched, Lucy felt like she was on fire for him. Bobby really went for it too, properly smooching her in a passionate manner. It turned her on so much that she couldn't keep her legs still. Her hands rose to his cheeks and she uncontrollably sighed in delight as the kiss ended. She was literally tingling. This was not acting at all. She wanted more. She needed more. She had to have more.

"Uh, Lucy, Bobby?" a male voice said. It was one of the fans, having plucked up the courage to approach them. Inwardly, Lucy was raging at the interruption. All she wanted was to kiss Bobby some more, and professionalism could be damned. But they had to be polite to these four guys. At least they could get a picture to further the dating angle, if it even was still an angle she thought, utterly confused by her own emotions.

"Hey, man," Bobby said, stepping in for her. "What's up?"

The fan was a blonde guy in his twenties. He looked awed to be in their presence. "We, uh, were wondering if we could get some pictures with you guys?" he ventured.

Lucy finally managed to pull herself together. "We've got a car waiting, but sure, we can a get one picture quickly. Gather your friends around."

"Awesome, thanks!" The guy turned to the rest of his group. "We can get a pic if we're quick. Get over here."

Expressing their excitement and gratitude, the other three guys hurried over, one of them getting his phone ready. The six of them all posed for a selfie, having to squash together to all fit in the picture.

"Alright, we have to go," Lucy said once the picture was taken.

Another barrage of gratitude came Lucy and Bobby's way as they headed for the car. All Lucy could think about was what she was going to say to him about the kiss. She was still aching for more. She didn't know how she was going to hold herself back, such was her desire to kiss him.

"Are you okay?" Bobby asked once they were safely in the car.

Lucy greeted the driver first and told him to head straight for the airport, before raising the blacked out partition to separate them from him. "No, I'm not," she admitted, sounding as flustered as she felt.

"What's up?" Bobby asked, giving her the impression that he knew all too well.

"I want to kiss you again," she confessed, looking him in the eye. "It's unprofessional to even think that. It's wrong. I shouldn't feel that way, but when you kiss me it makes me…"

Her words were cut off by Bobby leaning forward and kissing her. He didn't want to talk about it, he just wanted to do it.

"Bobby," Lucy gasped between kisses.

"Don't question it," he breathed. "We both feel it. Just go with it."

And they did. The journey to the airport became one long make out session – their first genuine sexual experience with each other. Although she loved every moment of it, tasting Bobby and feeling his tongue against her own, Lucy told herself to be absolutely firm in her determination that things would go no further. She was not going to sleep with Bobby Roode. That couldn't happen. After getting out of the car at the airport, she told him exactly that, along with an rather panicked apology for kissing him.

"You're not sorry," he replied simply. "Neither am I. That was the best quarter hour I've had for a very long time. But I agree, it shouldn't go any further."

"But can we stop it?" Lucy breathed. Her body certainly wanted sex, no matter how much of a bad idea her brain considered it to be.

"I don't know," he said quietly. "You drive me crazy, Lucy Thorne."

"You drive me crazy too, but we have to snap out of it," she said, finding determination from somewhere.

Bobby nodded his agreement and they headed for the terminal entrance.

A voice in Lucy's head mocked the exchange that had just happened. "Who are you kidding?" it wanted to know.


	8. Chapter 8

Bobby had stayed as quiet as he could get away with so far during the creative meeting in the boardroom at WWE HQ. Lucy was in one of her rare angry moods, brought on by a discussion about the romance angle that was going off the rails fast.

The more time that went by and the more pictures the fans saw of Bobby and Lucy together, supposedly as a couple, the more popular they became. Bobby being pushed so hard, rather than enraging people, seemed to be receiving acceptance. He was still cheered during his matches, and crowds still sang along with his entrance theme every week. There was no sign of animosity at all. He had even heard some Lucy Thorne chants, making him wonder if people wanted to see the boss on-screen with him.

The idea behind the whole romance with the Chairwoman thing was supposed to have turned him heel. If anything, it was having the opposite effect, and Lucy was not happy about it at all. Bobby felt sorry for Charlotte, who was the object of a lot of the boss's ire. After all, the idea had been Charlotte's brain child.

"We could always go with it?" Hunter suggested. "If they're determined to cheer Bobby, why don't we let them? It might not be what we intended at the start, but that's not the end of the world. If he's getting over as a face, that's still good for us."

"No," Lucy snapped, a very stubborn and irritated expression on her face. She looked between Hunter, Charlotte and TJ Wilson, all of whom she considered partially responsible for the angle that was going wrong. "The three of you sat in those very seats and talked me into getting involved in a storyline, despite the fact that I didn't think it was a great idea. Hunter, you spoke at length about how good it would be to use a clever way like this to turn Bobby heel. Now you want to sit there and tell me to go with it when it all starts going pear shaped?" She had been working herself up more and more as she spoke, and it resulted in an explosion. "No! You can fucking step up! The three of you are going to go back to your department, and you're going to come up with a way to get some heat on him, and fast!" She was pointing at Bobby, a look of thunder on her face.

Bobby's heart went out to Charlotte, who looked almost ready to cry. "I'm sorry, Lucy," she said, summoning all the courage she had. "This was my idea. I really thought it would work."

"Well it's not working," Lucy said, holding herself back from launching another salvo. "We need to do more to make people hate Bobby. You're going to go back, get your heads together, and you're going to come back in here tomorrow with a plan that I can sign off for to put this mess right. Understood?"

"We'll get it figured out," TJ assured her.

Lucy made a hand gesture that included everyone sitting opposite her apart from Bobby. "You can go. You have work to do."

Hunter led the way to the door, holding it open for Charlotte and TJ before following them out.

"That was a bit tough on Charlotte," Bobby ventured once they were alone, fully aware that he was pushing his luck.

"Don't tell me how to run my company," Lucy snapped at him. "And if she can't handle the heat, she can get out of the kitchen. If she comes up with ideas that don't work, the buck stops with her. That's the job she took on."

"Fair enough. I just wanted to put in the good word for her," Bobby relented.

"Well don't."

And that was that subject brought to an end. Bobby waited for a moment while Lucy sipped from a glass of water. He was getting used to her mannerisms, and knew she liked to take a sip of a drink before changing the subject of a conversation. It was as if she felt it drew a line under the previous topic.

"You wanted me for something else?" he asked politely.

"Yes. Friday, I have to make a trip to England, and I want you to come with me. We've got to keep this mess of an angle going, and this is a good opportunity to do so."

"England?" Bobby asked, pleased with the prospect of traveling with her to her home country, but unsure what the reason could be for the trip.

"Yes. I'm part owner of Leicester City, football club in the Premier League."

Bobby nodded. "I know, and I've seen the team before. I'm not much of a soccer fan, but I've seen a few games. Are we going to a game?"

"We are," she confirmed with a hint of a smile, her temper fading fast, as it usually did. "The reason for the trip is that we recently fired the team's manager. We're stuck mid-table in the league, which just isn't good enough. We've hired a new manager, and he'll be introduced to the fans on the pitch on Saturday, with all three of the team's owners, obviously including me, there with him. After that, we'll be watching the game from the executive suite. Food, beer, football..."

"A sexy woman for company," Bobby added with a grin.

"Don't start," she warned him seriously.

More than a week had gone by since they had enjoyed a meal together after Raw, followed by a lengthy make out session in the back of a car. Bobby hadn't been able to stop thinking it ever since. Even now, he felt himself hardening at the memory of what she had tasted like, what her damp lips had felt like against his, how her tongue had felt in his mouth. He ached for more, but she had been perfectly clear and rather firm with him the day after the kissing, telling him that it had to stop. They were being unprofessional.

"Fuck professionalism," he had wanted to say at the time, before taking her in his arms and kissing her again. But Lucy was his boss, and he simply couldn't risk doing something like that. If she took it the wrong way, it could be his last act as a WWE employee.

Back in reality, in the boardroom, he just shrugged. "Only speaking the truth."

"Well don't," she told him for the second time in the space of a few minutes. "We're going to England for the storyline and nothing more. Clear?"

"Crystal," he assured her, while hoping against hope that things didn't turn out that way.

* * *

Bobby looked out of the window of the car that was driving him and Lucy through the city of her birth, Leicester, England. The object of his attention was Leicester City's stadium, which had just came into sight. What he saw took him by surprise. The stadium itself was large and fairly modern, but was not particularly remarkable in size. What had surprised him were the two large words on the side of it in blue lettering, above the main entrance: Thorne Stadium.

"The Thorne Stadium?" he queried, turning to face Lucy.

"Thorne Enterprises bought the naming rights after the previous deal expired," she explained nonchalantly.

"Oh," he said quietly as he processed that. "But wait, you also part own the team. So you paid yourself money, and you have your name on the stadium."

Lucy gave him a crafty smile. "Correct. And think how many times the name of a team's stadium gets mentioned on TV, internet and radio over a season. That's a shit load of free advertising for Thorne Enterprises. Well, not really free because I bought the naming rights, but you know what I mean."

You are a very savvy businesswoman, Bobby thought. He found it weird that he had a feeling of pride about it, like his girl had done something cool. She wasn't his girl, he reminded himself.

The car soon dropped them off at a VIP entrance. Once inside the stadium, they parted ways. Lucy had to go to meet with her co-owners and the team's new manager to prepare for the presentation. Meanwhile, Bobby took the ID card he had been given and followed her directions to the executive suite, where she would join him later.

Entering the suite, Bobby was greeted by an impeccably dressed, attractive young redhead who welcomed him and asked if he would like anything to drink.

Bobby ordered a beer, then walked over to take a seat near to the full length, full height glass doors that looked out into the stadium, where fans were beginning to trickle in for the Saturday evening game. He saw that there was luxury seating outside for the suite's occupants, but he decided to hell with that. The English weather in the last week in February was way too cold for sitting out there.

There were two expensively dressed women already in the suite, standing in a corner, drinking white wine. Wives of the team's other two owners, Bobby assumed as they greeted him and introduced themselves. They were both blondes, and he was willing to bet they were younger than their men. They showed some vague interest when he explained that he was a guest of Lucy Thorne, choosing his words carefully. With that, the women went back to babbling away to each other about anything but football.

Simply to have something to do other than hear the inane chatter, Bobby sat down and called Seth Rollins, spending the best part of an hour chatting to him about pretty much nothing, keeping half an eye on the crowd filling the stadium, and the players from the two teams warming up on the pitch.

With not long to go before the game, both sets of players disappeared into the locker rooms again, and an announcement was made that someone called Carlo Ancelotti was to be presented as the team's new manager, and that he would be taking charge from the next game.

Bobby opened the glass door, wanting to sit outside to watch Lucy in action. He noticed that there was a small notice stuck to the glass saying no alcohol was to be taken outside, so he left his beer on the closest table to the door, before settling into one of the seats out in the cold. Ancelotti was introduced, followed by the owners, with Lucy Thorne being the final name called out.

"Oh," Bobby said to himself when he heard a few boos among the applause for the owners and incoming manager as they walked out of the tunnel on the opposite side of the pitch.

"Fuck off back to America!" one particularly drunk voice yelled from somewhere nearby, obviously at Lucy.

Bobby realised that as far as the fans were concerned, the team's underperformance wasn't only being blamed on the manager who had recently been fired – the owners were getting the flack for it too. The profanity and anger being directed towards Lucy got under Bobby's skin more than it should have done, he noticed. It was like someone was giving his girl shit.

"Stop it," he muttered. Lucy was not his girl. She was his boss, and his partner in a storyline, he told himself angrily. But if that was the case, why couldn't he take his eyes off her as she posed for a pack of press photographers and TV cameras along with the three men? God damn, she was beautiful, he thought. His mind went back to the make out session from the week before, and his balls started aching. She turned him on something crazy.

While watching on, he also happened to notice that she was now wearing leather gloves that she hadn't had on in the car. They must have been stashed in her jacket pocket, he thought with surprising annoyance. He had never had a particular thing for leather or gloves before, but those long opera gloves she had worn for the movie premiere had really made an impression on him. She had looked impossibly hot in them, and they had felt amazing when he had held her hand. Lucy teasing him with a fake offer to give him a hand job with them certainly hadn't helped matters. Even after that had let him continue to sit there and hold her hand most of the night though, probably because she had known it was a turn on for him.

She really has been flirting with me, he realised, especially the premiere night. If she was attracted to him, he could kind of understand why that was the case. She had been dressed up and made up to her very best that night, so to have received genuine attraction from him rather than it being a part of the storyline had to have felt good for her. It had likely been the first experience like that for her since her divorce.

The presentation coming to an end brought him out of his thoughts. It had lasted two minutes at most before the group of four had started heading for the tunnel again. Bobby shook his head in near disbelief. "We flew over here for that?" he muttered. But then he realised that it was more about the message being sent to the new manager and to the Leicester fans – that Lucy Thorne was with them.

Bobby got up and went back inside to wait for Lucy to come up to the suite. It took more than fifteen minutes for her to arrive, by which time the game had started and he was on his second beer.

All three owners walked into the suite together, and Bobby was introduced to the two men. Sure enough, they were both considerably older than their wives. With that done, Lucy took a glass of white wine from the redhead hostess. Bobby's mind registered that the gloves were gone again, surprised at himself for finding it quite a disappointment. Still, it was the opera gloves that he really wanted to see again.

"Let's sit over by the doors and watch the game," she suggested, seeing his beer over there as she spoke. "Oh, you're there anyway. That's good."

"Shame you can't take alcohol outside," he commented, trying to shake off any kind of thoughts about being attracted to her.

"Yeah. Premier League rules, not ours. No alcohol in the stadium itself, only in the bars and the suites. At least we hopefully have a decent game to watch. But first, we should get a picture together so that people know you were here. I'll put it on Instagram and put a caption about having a great time with you at the Leicester City game."

"Good idea," Bobby said. After all, it was his reason for being there. The fans seeing that he was over in England with Lucy would all but confirm what they thought was a real relationship.

One of the trophy wives agreed to take the picture using Lucy's phone. Bobby felt something stir inside him as Lucy nestled against him and put an arm around his waist. He held her in the same manner, getting a strong scent of her perfume as he did so. Damn, he had it bad for her. Everything about her turned him on at this point. Under any other circumstance, he would already have slept with her. But he couldn't do that. It was torture!

After taking her phone back, Lucy signalled to the redhead with her wine glass. "I'll take another one of these."

* * *

"Welcome to the best hotel in Leicester," Lucy slurred as she and Bobby came almost stumbling through the revolving door into the lobby. They were both worse for wear thanks to the amount of drink they had put away back at the stadium, during the course of 1-0 win for Leicester.

It was the first time for a while that Bobby had been properly drunk, and it felt great. "Steady," he said, putting a hand on her arm to help her. "And what makes you think this is the best hotel in Leicester?" His own question make him laugh, such was the effect of the alcohol.

"I own it," she announced, spreading her arms wide.

"Of course you do," he said with a shake of the head, thinking that he should have seen that coming a long way off. "Well, come on, Ms Hotel Owner, let's get you up to your room before there's an accident."

"You're good to me, Bobby, you know that? And you're such good company. I've not laughed as much as I did tonight for a long time."

"That's great to know, but you probably feel that way because you're drunk," he said gently as they made their way towards the elevator

"I'm not that drunk," she told him in the most convincing manner she could, which wasn't very convincing at all.

"Yeah you are, and you're going to be seriously hung over tomorrow. But don't worry, I'll make sure you get some strong coffee and a nice breakfast." Bobby pushed the button to call an elevator to the lobby.

"That's what I mean," Lucy said, referring to her previous comments about him.

"I'm going to remind you of all this stuff you've been saying tomorrow, you do realise that?"

Lucy giggled. "I hope you do."

A couple of minutes later, they were up on the top floor and heading for her room, one of the hotel's most expensive suites. The door was quite near to the elevators.

"This is me here," she reported, fumbling around with the key card. After a moment she was able to unlock the door. She pushed it open slightly and stood with her back against it to stop it closing.

"This is where we say goodnight," Bobby said with a smile.

"Doesn't have to be," she replied, looking at him with lust in her eyes.

She was offering sex, Bobby realised. Every part of him instantly craved to go into her room, but he somehow held back, worried that it might be a mistake that they would both regret. "Lucy, I don't think…"

Lucy grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him towards her. "Don't think. Just kiss me," she ordered before locking lips with him.

Any resistance Bobby might have put up was blown away the moment he tasted her. It intoxicated like the most powerful kind of nectar. He had been longing for this so long – they both had. What was the point in trying to fight it? "God you're fucking hot," he said gruffly between kisses as he allowed her to pull him into the room.

The door crashed shut behind him, with a female giggle audible from inside.


	9. Chapter 9

Lucy was cautious to open her eyes. Her head was pounding and her mouth tasted absolutely vile. Unsurprisingly, considering the amount of wine she had gone through at the Leicester game, she had a serious hangover.

As she opened her eyes, she saw Bobby lying beside her, tired eyes open and a small smile on his face.

"That's a sight for a sore head," he said quietly, admiring her beauty even in the state she was currently in.

Oh, God, Lucy thought. She had slept with him. She felt instantly furious with herself. It was the wrong thing to have done for so many reasons. First and foremost, he was an employee of hers. One of the things she valued most highly was her professionalism, and this was as far away from professional as it was possible to get.

"Get real," a voice in her head said. "You know you were going to sleep with him at some point. You both wanted it too much." It was true, she had to admit. From the moment she had first kissed Bobby, she hadn't been able to get him out of her head. He turned her on like she had at one time only imagined only her ex-husband could.

And there was another problem. She hadn't been divorced long enough to want to get into a relationship with someone. It just didn't feel right to even consider it.

"You're regretting it, aren't you?" Bobby said. It was a statement, not a question or an accusation. Her couple of seconds of silence after locking eyes with him had told him that all too clearly.

But how could she answer him honestly without badly hurting his feelings? Because it wasn't as if this had been a drunken disaster that never would have happened otherwise. Sure, without the drink it wouldn't have happened last night, but it probably would have happened. The feelings for Bobby were there, and had been getting harder and harder to force aside.

Maybe, in a way, the alcohol had actually helped them along? The more she thought about it, the more confusing it got. Was it actually a good thing that she had let her guard down, and they had shared what had been a mind-blowing sexual encounter?

No, she decided. The circumstances were all wrong. And even if they hadn't been, the timing was too soon. There was no changing the fact that the one night stand had happened, but she had to ensure that was all it was.

"Lucy, say something," Bobby urged softly.

"This can't happen again, Bobby," she croaked before clearing her throat. "We can't sleep with each other."

"We did sleep with each other," he said evenly.

"I mean it can't happen again," Lucy insisted. Groaning, she sat up, the room spinning around her for a moment.

Bobby followed her example and sat up, moving his pillows to support his back while Lucy turned to sit sideways to him, looking him in the eye. "It can if we want it to," he said.

Lucy shook her head. "It's not appropriate. We both know that. I'm not only your boss, I own the company you work for. It's unprofessional for me to sleep with you."

"Tell that to Hunter and Stephanie," Bobby said matter of fact.

That comment angered Lucy. She was hungover and annoyed with herself. It wasn't time for him to start dropping his one liners. "You can cut the wise guy shit," she snapped at him. "This isn't a joke. I'm pissed off that it happened."

Bobby grimaced, regretting the wisecrack. "Sorry. But are you really pissed off that it happened, or are you pissed of with how it happened?"

Lucy's head pounded. She felt so flustered by that question. Boy, was he right on the mark with it.

"I'm not trying to pressure you," he said gently, seemingly having picked up on the effect the question had had on her. "I just want to know if it's me, or if it's the circumstances?"

"It's the circumstances," Lucy replied, displaying every bit of her frustration. "Of course it's the fucking circumstances. The way you make me feel when I'm with you, when you kiss me. How much I enjoy every moment we spend together. If you were some guy I'd met in any other way, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But I just can't do this, Bobby. I can't."

Lucy felt like she was going to cry – a rare thing indeed for her. There was still a voice in her head telling her she was lying, too. But Bobby was nothing but gracious. He took her hand and held it lightly. "I understand. I really do. I'd be lying if said it was what I wanted to hear, I think you know that. But I get what you're saying, and if this isn't going to happen again, I'll have to take it on the chin. The last thing I want is to make things awkward between us. We've still got to work together."

Lucy squeezed his hand a little, deeply appreciating what he had said. "I don't want things to become awkward between us either."

"They won't, I promise," he said earnestly. "To prove it, when we've had a shower, I'm taking you for that breakfast I promised you."

"Okay. That'll be lovely," Lucy said softly, trying not to let on that part of her wanted to kiss him.

* * *

"Thanks for this, Zelina," Bobby said as he sat down on the couch usually occupied by Bayley and Elena on the tour bus.

It was Monday afternoon, and they had recently arrived at the arena for Raw. While the other members of the group, including Elena, had gone into the building, Bobby had asked Zelina if he could have a chat to her in private. Since sleeping with Lucy on Saturday night, he had felt like he was going out of his mind. Lucy and their several intimate encounters, ranging from heavy flirting, to making out, to sex, were all he could think about. He was starting to obsess about her.

In a way it had been a good thing that she had been at a business meeting Monday morning, so Bobby had joined up with the tour bus group to travel to Raw instead of doing so with her. If he had been in the back of a car with her, he would have been hard pushed to keep his eyes off her.

"What's wrong?" Zelina asked, sitting opposite him on the couch she always shared with Seth. "I don't think I've ever seen you so..." She searched for the right word.

"Frustrated," Bobby said. "I'm frustrated. In fact I'm going crazy."

"What about?" she asked with concern, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her thighs.

Bobby knew he had to come out with the whole story, in the hope that Zelina had some wise words to help him deal with what was going on. He had considered both Zelina and Seth as the person to approach, but had decided to go with Zel for the simple reason that she was a woman, and that just might give her a better understanding of what the situation looked like from Lucy's point of view.

"I, uh," he faltered, unsure how to begin.

"It's alright," Zelina said reassuringly. "Not a word will go further than the two of us. We're talking in confidence, and I'm here to try and help. Tell me what's up."

"I slept with Lucy," Bobby confessed.

Zelina's eyes widened. "Oh shit! I mean, oh. That's not what I expected. How did it happen?"

"Things had been heading that way for a while," he said with a slight shake of his head. "It started the night we went to The Rock's movie premiere. She was dressed in this vintage look, in a very sexy dress and leather opera gloves. It blew my mind the second I saw her."

"I remember seeing the pictures," Zelina said. "She did look out of this world that night. In fact, you looked great together. It's no wonder people aren't doubting that you're together. There were some shots of you kissing each other," she recalled.

"Right. Some guy called out and asked us to kiss. We could hardly refuse, it would have looked too weird. So we kissed, and it was incredible. I didn't want to stop, and I could tell she didn't either."

"Wow," Zelina breathed. "Carry on."

"We went into the movie and, well, this is going to sound weird, but I couldn't stop thinking about how sexy those gloves were. I'd been holding her hand, and I loved the way it felt. So I took her hand again while we sat there, and she figured out why I did it. She asked me if I liked the gloves. I said I did. Then she said, 'What if I gave you a hand job with them?'"

"Oh! That's some God tier flirting," Zelina said, eyes wide again.

"I know," Bobby said, feeling slightly turned on just by recounting the story. "From then on, we were both flirting with each other a lot. Then last Monday night we went out for a meal as a way to further the angle."

"Again, I saw pictures," she said.

"You didn't see pictures of what happened in her car. We had kissed again because there were some fans watching us. Afterwards, we got into the car, and we couldn't hold ourselves back. We spent the whole ride to the airport making out. She was kissing me like her life depended on it. She was so into me."

"So when did you sleep with each other? Was it that night, or was it in England, after the soccer game?"

Bobby nodded. "It was Saturday night, after the game. We both got raging drunk in the executive suite. When we got back to the hotel, Lucy invited me into her room. If I had been sober, I might have managed to say no and walk away. But no, I went into her room and we had the hottest sex I can remember."

"So what's the problem?" Zelina asked. "I'm guessing you both regretted it in the morning?"

"Well, Lucy did," Bobby sighed. "We talked about it and she said that if we'd met under any other circumstances, she wouldn't have had a problem. But as it was, it's unprofessional and inappropriate, and we can't be together."

"Yet you want to be with her," Zelina realised. "Oh, Bobby, that's rough. I feel for you."

"Thanks. But what do I do? Is there anything I can do?" he asked, frustration coming to the fore again.

Zelina took a moment to think about it. "Do you reckon she actually meant it? Or was she trying to convince herself? Because from what you've told me, she's been taking the lead in most of the flirting and stuff."

That was a very good point, he realised. The hand job comment, the public kissing, the kissing in the car, the fact that he had gone into her hotel room, it had all been instigated by Lucy. "You're right," he said slowly. "She's got it for me more than I realised. She's been taking the lead the whole time. Maybe she was trying to convince herself to stop?" But that left him with another question on his mind. "So what do I do about it?"

"This isn't going to sound like a great plan, but I think it's your only real option. You wait for a while and see if she makes any kind of attempt to flirt with you again. If she does, that tells you all you need to know: She wants you, and was trying to talk herself out of it."

"And if she doesn't do anything again?"

Zelina grimaced. "Then it is what it is. I know that totally sucks for you, but she owns the company you work for. You can't try and force the issue with her at all. It'll be frustrating as all hell, but like I said, I don't see what else you can do."

Bobby had to admit she was right. He had to prepare himself for even more frustration. If only he could read Lucy's mind. What did she really think? What did her heart want? Was she going to act on her attraction for him again?


	10. Chapter 10

Bobby was more than a mile from Lucy Thorne's house, yet he could already feel himself being consumed by sexual tension. Just being around her was starting to be such a painful experience. Literally all he wanted to do was kiss her, to make love to her, to explore every inch of her body with his hands, or even better, his tongue.

But he couldn't. It had been more than two weeks since they had slept together, and Lucy's resolve had held out ever since. Zelina's advice that he should wait for her to make the next move was correct, but that next move hadn't come. It was turning into a nightmare, having to continue acting like he was in a relationship with her when he so badly wanted it to be true, not just an angle.

Another problem was the fact that the angle was still not going according to plan. No matter what the creative team came up with, the fans insisted on cheering for Bobby, and shipping his relationship with Lucy Thorne. Even having him inserted into the Raw main event at Wrestlemania, competing for the Universal title, hadn't managed to get any heat on him. People seemed delighted with the prospect of a Rollins – Roode - Balor triple threat match, and from what he had seen, a lot of them wanted Bobby to win.

It was also becoming a regular thing whenever he was wrestling or especially cutting a promo for crowds to chant Lucy Thorne. It was plainly obvious that people wanted to see more than pictures of them together on Instagram or Twitter, they wanted to see them together on-screen. It was an idea that Lucy continued to remain opposed to, as she tried to stick to her guns that this was supposed to be a heel turn for Bobby. He considered it probably a matter of time before she had to admit defeat on that one. Whether the creative team liked it or not, whether the boss liked it or not, he wasn't going to get any heat from this angle. That was just the way it was.

As he turned his car onto the driveway that led through the trees to Lucy's house, Bobby wondered if that was going to be a topic of conversation at the upcoming meeting. He found it odd that Lucy had summoned him alone to talk over the latest storylines for the women's division on Smackdown. Surely it would have made sense to at least have TJ there with them? After all, creative was his department. Bobby just worked there part time. Still, it wasn't his job to question the boss. She had said come to the house, so here he was.

After parking up in the large but empty courtyard at the front of the house, Bobby got out of his car. This time, unlike his first visit, the temperature was above freezing, albeit not by much. The fountain that formed the centrepiece of the courtyard was in operation, and he took a second to admire it. He was just heading for the front door when it was opened by Jo, Lucy's housekeeper, who had apparently heard his car arrive.

"Good morning, sir," she said brightly. "Ms Thorne is waiting for you in the great room."

Bobby remembered the great room well from his previous visit. He looked forward to seeing that breath-taking view from the enormous window again, this time without any snow on the ground. He greeted the housekeeper with a smile as he approached. "Jo, right?"

"That's right, sir," she said, flashing another smile.

"Bobby, please. Being called sir makes me feel like a school teacher or something."

"Alright, Bobby it is," Jo said. "Follow me, please. Would you like a drink of any kind?"

"Coffee would be nice," Bobby said as he closed the front door behind him. He noticed how lovely and warm the house was, remembering Lucy saying how much she hated the cold. He expected to find a real fire going in that huge fireplace in the great room.

Sure enough, when he followed Jo in there, he found exactly that. Lucy was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the fire, tapping away on the screen of an iPad. Hard at work as usual, he thought.

"Bobby Roode is here, Lucy," Jo announced.

Lucy looked up, and Bobby saw genuine warmth and maybe even a little excitement on her face. It was clear that she had been looking forward to seeing him. Further evidence of that was in the fact that he didn't receive a formal greeting and a handshake as he had on his first visit. Instead, she simply gestured to the other chair and brightly said, "Morning. Have a seat."

"Morning, Lucy," he smiled back on his way over there, taking his jacket off and handing it to Jo. He was so lost on Lucy's beauty that he didn't even look out of the feature window.

"Bobby has requested coffee. Would you like anything?" Jo asked Lucy after she took the jacket from him.

"Coffee is good, thank you."

Jo nodded an acknowledgement and left the room as Bobby sat down in front of the fire that crackled away in a very satisfying manner. It really gave off a lot of warmth, too, he quickly observed. "Can't remember the last time I sat in front of a real fire," he commented.

Lucy turned off her iPad and put it down on the low table between them. In its place, she picked up some hand-written notes pertaining to the discussion they were going to have. It struck Bobby as a little strange that she did paperwork by hand sometimes in this day and age, but if it worked for her, so be it.

Pleasantries were exchanged until Jo returned with the coffee, then they got down to business. It didn't take Bobby long to figure out that he hadn't needed to drive out here for this discussion. It was the kind of thing that she could have stopped by the creative department and spent five minutes on. With that in mind, it begged the question of why he was really there. When she wrapped up the conversation, which had laboured its way through a quarter of an hour, he decided to come out with the question directly.

"I'm getting the distinct impression that I didn't come here to talk about the women's creative," he said before taking a sip from his coffee cup. He used it as a cover for closely studying her reaction. There was some nervousness about her. She wasn't confident about the real topic she wanted to discuss with him. That was very interesting.

"I, uh… Before I speak with Hunter, TJ and Charlotte tomorrow, I wanted to get your view on where our relationship stands at the moment."

"Do you mean on TV, or…?" he asked cautiously. Frankly, he wanted to talk about their real relationship, whatever it currently was. He saw that question cause her even more discomfort. His chest tightened. That night in the Leicester hotel was playing on her mind too. She hadn't been able to shake it off. That had to be good news for him. But was she going to act on the feelings that were hounding her?

"I meant on TV," she said, sounding rather forced. "It's becoming apparent that this heel turn idea has gone pear shaped. Even adding you to the Universal title match didn't draw any heat. People got behind it. We're going to have to accept the reality of the situation."

"Meaning?" he asked, leaning forward slightly. He hadn't expected to hear that.

Lucy nursed her coffee for a long moment, looking down into the cup. "Meaning I think I have to take Hunter and TJ's advice."

"Which is?" he prompted. Had she forgotten he wasn't usually a part of the meetings involving the men's creative? He had no idea what she was talking about.

"Which is that you and I should be on-screen together, as a babyface pairing."

Bobby felt his mouth fall open in surprise. He hadn't seen that coming at all. Lucy had been resistant to both the idea of abandoning the heel turn and to allowing herself to appear on-screen. Now here she was proposing both of those things in one fell swoop. Talk about dropping a bombshell!

"Well, damn," he said quietly. "That kind of came out of left field. Don't take that as me being against the idea, though. I'm all for it. Sometimes it pays to give the people what they want. I think Vince was too stubborn in that regard at times, and it's changed for the better since you took over."

"It is one of the areas I looked at," Lucy admitted. "I'm seriously considering giving TJ, Hunter and Charlotte the green light to start working on possible angles for me to debut, and to come up with a viable rivalry for us."

"Sounds great to me. I'm glad you've come around to the idea. I think you'll enjoy it a lot. We both will."

Lucy looked incredibly awkward. She fidgeted in her chair and gazed into the fire rather than looking Bobby in the eye. "I do have a big problem, though," she said quietly.

"What's that?" he asked, feeling the tension radiating from her.

"I... uh..." she faltered.

Bobby was tempted to reach out and take her hand, but he held back. "What is it?" he asked tenderly.

Lucy cracked, turning to face him with desire in her eyes. "I can't just play the part of your girlfriend, Bobby. I can't do it. I've not been able to stop thinking about you since that night."

Hearing the outburst of emotion had blown Bobby away. She really wanted him! She wanted him as much as he wanted her! But it wasn't that simple, of course. All of the reasons she had listed the morning after they had slept together about why a relationship between them was a bad idea still applied. "I feel that way about you too, Lucy. You know that. But where does that leave us? You expressed some genuine and logical concerns about us being together."

"Trust me, I've been thinking about nothing else ever since. I was until just a few seconds ago, when I was finally able to decide what I wanted to do."

Bobby needed her to spell it for him. If she wanted to be with him, she needed to tell him exactly that. "What do you want to do?"

Lucy met his eyes again, and gave him a little smile that he absolutely adored. "What everyone has to do from time to time: Say fuck potential problems and go with what my heart wants. My heart wants you, Bobby. You make me feel like I never expected to again. You make me feel special. You make me feel sexy. You make me feel like I matter to you."

"Come here," Bobby said, getting up out of his chair.

Lucy did as he asked and they embraced each other in front of the fire. In that moment, she stopped being his boss and became the woman he was about to start a relationship with. He kissed her softly on the lips. "All of those things are true, Lucy. You are sexy. You are special. And you definitely matter to me. If it's possible to give this a go, I'm totally there for it. I would have said so sooner, but this had to be your decision."

They kissed passionately for a moment before Lucy said, "I understand that. It still feels like a crazy decision in some ways."

"That's what's good about it," Bobby said with that almost teenage humour that was part of the reason she had fallen for him. He made her laugh. He made her happy.

"I've been longing for sex," she gasped bluntly, pressing herself even tighter to him, feeling his hard length against her stomach and his powerful arms holding her in place.

"Trust me, me too. I'm willing to bet you have a few bedrooms in this place?"

"Yeah," she grinned, the word sounding breathless. "I'll go and send Jo home for the day. Then we have the whole place to ourselves, and we can have sex in whatever bedroom you want."

"Mmm," Bobby sighed. "Sounds like my ideal day. Maybe we can try all the bedrooms?"

Lucy bit her bottom lip for a second. "If you've got the stamina," she said, teasing him a little.

"Let me show you," he replied before kissing her again.


	11. Chapter 11

"I still can't believe you've never played mini golf before," Bobby said to Lucy.

He had just paid for a round for them both on a nine hole course that was described as being fun for all the family. There was no family, but it promised to be a fun time for him and his girlfriend of two weeks. His real girlfriend. They were no longer playacting.

Since they had decided to make a real go of their relationship, things had been going great. The circumstances created by the angle they had been working had proven to be ideal, for WWE's fans had already been under the assumption that they were together, and the company's employees were still naturally thinking it was a work. How long that particular aspect continued remained to be seen.

"I've not played mini golf, but I've played real golf. How hard can it be?" Lucy replied with a happy smile as she took her putter and ball from him.

Bobby chuckled. "Remember you said that. And be aware that I'm good at this game."

"Well, it's childish, so you would be," she replied, giving him a cheeky side eye.

"Oh, your barbs hurt so much, Ms Thorne," Bobby said, holding his chest like he had been fatally stabbed.

"I'm just getting warmed up, Roode. So you'd better make sure I win this thing, or else."

They both laughed as they approached the first little hole. It was a fairly simple way to start: all they had to do was hit the ball over a bridge onto the area where the hole was located. There were not many other people around, as even in Florida the weather in mid-march wasn't particularly warm.

"Right, ladies first," Bobby said.

Lucy shook her head. "No, you can go first. I want to see what I have to follow."

"Oh, it's like that is it? Alright, I'll go first. But when I get a hole in one, it's going to make you look stupid."

Lucy laughed loudly. "You're such a charmer, you know that?"

With a big grin on his face, Bobby put his ball down and lined up his first shot. "Watch this. This is how it's done."

He took aim at the narrow bridge and hit the ball. It was immediately obvious that he had used too much power. To make matters worse, his ball clipped the side of the bridge on its way over, sending it bouncing off to the right as it reached the other side. It hit one of the side barriers and bounced off in the direction of the hole, rolling past close to the side of it before hitting another side barrier and ending up several feet away from the hole.

By the time the ball came to a standstill, Lucy was howling with laughter. "What the hell was that mess supposed to be?" she managed to ask.

"It nearly went in!" Bobby protested.

"Yeah, after hitting the bridge and the side! If that had dropped, I would have quit before I started."

Bobby laughed. "Okay then, Tiger Woods. Let's see what you can do."

"I'm going to be a bit more delicate about it, that's for a start," Lucy said as she put her ball down and began to line up the shot.

"Yes, I know you can be delicate when you need to be," Bobby said, making It sound like an innuendo.

"One of my many talents," she confirmed. She played her shot, giving the ball a firm tap. It rolled cleanly over the little bridge, but missed the hole to the left at the far end. "Damn, this is tougher than it looks," she commented.

"If I'm not mistaken, you've ended up further away than me," Bobby observed smugly.

"It's hole one, shot one, arsehole," she pretended to snap at him.

As they walked down to the far end of the hole, Bobby leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "You know, talking about being delicate, I was once promised a certain kind of hand job that I've never gotten."

Lucy had to smile as she felt herself getting a little turned on by his words. She knew he was talking about the night at the movie premiere, where she had made the inappropriate comment about her leather opera gloves that he had taken a particular liking to. Now that they were together, the comment had gone from inappropriate to something she could actually do, if she wanted to grant his wish. "I'm not sure there was a promise there," she said slyly. "It was more like planting a seed in your mind than promising you anything."

"No way," he objected. "You can't say something like that and then not come through on it."

Lucy turned around to face him and gave him a little peck on the lips before mocking him. "Aww, poor Bobby. I know you like my gloves so much. Don't worry, we'll see what we can do next time we're at my place. Maybe I can even buy some different coloured ones for you?"

"The ones you have are just fine," he assured her.

"Alright. Maybe I'll start wearing them more often, then?"

"The weather is going to start getting warmer now," he pointed out.

Lucy gave him a mischievous grin. "Who said anything about being outside? Now take your shot."

Bobby saluted her, feeling himself hardening – exactly the reaction she had wanted her words to have on him. He tried to force the images she had put in his head aside and line up his putt. To his immense satisfaction, he was able to tap the ball into the hole.

"Damn. I was hoping to distract you," Lucy muttered.

"I know you were," he said as he retrieved his ball from the hole. "Try focusing on your own game."

Lucy giggled. "I so hope I beat you." She played her putt and the ball went into the hole. "Two shots for both of us."

"Nicely done," Bobby said as he used a pencil to mark their scores on the little card he had been given for the purpose.

Lucy fetched her ball from the hole and they headed for the next one – similar to the first hole apart from the fact that instead of a bridge there was a windmill with a hole in the bottom for balls to be hit through. The problem was that the windmill was rotating and the blades passed over the hole and blocked it.

"I've been doing some thinking about Axxess," Lucy said.

Bobby knew that she was referring to the fact that a campaign had been started on Twitter for Lucy to make herself available as a meet and greet option at Wrestlemania Axxess. The campaign was thanks in large part to the fact that when she had first bought her controlling share in WWE, Lucy had made a point of coming across as an owner who listened to the fans and tried to improve the product in line with what they wanted to see. Indeed, for the first Axxess sessions under her regime, she had done away with the tables for all superstar signings, requiring them to stand for the fans instead.

Now she was something of a victim of her own success. Once the campaign to get her at Axxess had gained traction, it would have looked extremely odd if it had gone ignored. There was also the fact that a plan to debut her on-screen as a baby face character alongside Bobby had recently been signed off on, and would be coming into effect soon. She now had a vested interest in appearing as fan friendly as she could. Giving them a first opportunity to meet her in person certainly fitted that bill.

"What have you decided?" Bobby asked, hoping that she was going to go ahead with the appearance. He felt sure that it would be incredibly well received if she did.

Before making a start on hole number two, Lucy turned and faced him again to give him the answer. "For the Sunday morning Axxess session, we're going to have one of the stages turned into the Connor's Cure stage. You and I will be there together as a premium VIP signing, and all proceeds will go to the charity. I issued the instructions this morning, so preparations for the announcement and getting the tickets on sale will be taking place as we speak."

A smile had appeared on Bobby's face as he listened to what she had arranged. Having them appear as a couple was even better than her appearing by herself. While it was true that some fans might buy a ticket and only want to get a picture with him or with her, they could accommodate for that on the fly. Donating all of the proceeds to Connor's Cure was the best part of the idea. Premium VIP tickets were not cheap. Selling hundreds of them would raise a serious amount of money.

"That's a wonderful idea, Lucy," he said, reaching down to give her a kiss. "That's my favourite thing about you. You have such a good heart. You could so easily have used this as a way to make easy money for WWE."

Lucy shrugged. "You might not hear many business people as successful as me say this, but there are more important things in life than money. If we can help kids with cancer, let's do it."

"Amen to that," Bobby said before giving her another kiss. "You're going to love meeting the fans. They're going to love meeting you. It'll be a great time."

"I am looking forward to it," Lucy smiled. "But before then, I have to beat your arse at this game, so take your shot."

"Yes, boss," Bobby said humbly. It always amused him when she dished out orders like that outside of a professional setting, where she had been perfectly clear that he would continue to be treated like any other employee, not that he had expected otherwise.

Determined to get the upper hand in the scoring, Bobby lined up a shot, ready to knock the ball through the hole in the windmill. Timing was the key, in order to miss the rotating blades. He played the stroke, and the ball crashed straight into one of the blades, bouncing back towards Bobby.

"Oh dear, what's happened there?" Lucy said theatrically, loving it. "See, what you're supposed to do is get it through the hole."

"Thank you, I hadn't realised," Bobby said dryly as he lined up another attempt. This time, his ball went through the windmill without a problem. "Okay," he said triumphantly, turning to Lucy. "Let's see you do better."

"Stand back and watch," Lucy said confidently. She put her ball down and lined up the shot. After a moment, she hit the ball. It was on target for the hole in the windmill, but it crashed into one of the blades and bounced back. Immediately, Bobby roared with laughter.

"Whoops," he said, rubbing it in. "You're supposed to get it through the hole."

"I'll get this club through your bloody hole," she warned him, brandishing her putter.

"It's never going to fit," he said judiciously, and they both burst out laughing.

Bobby watched as she lined up her second attempt. While teasing her was a lot of fun, he secretly wanted her to make a success of the shot.

Lucy hit her ball, and this time it managed to just miss the blades and go through the hole, emerging out of the other side and rolling closer to the target hole than Bobby's ball.

"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed, raising her hands in triumph.

"Alright, I'll give it to you. That was a great shot," Bobby said. He raised his hand and they shared a high five. As they slapped hands, he found himself wondering if he had ever been happier.


	12. Chapter 12

In less than a week, Philadelphia would be playing host to Wrestlemania 36 and all of the events that went along with it, including Axxess and the Hall of Fame. Lucy and Bobby would be heading down there on the Wednesday, and staying there for almost a full week.

But the trip wasn't at hand yet. It was Saturday evening, and they were relaxing at Lucy's house in Connecticut, enjoying a couple of days of rest before everything went crazy.

In general, Bobby was really happy with how things were going in their fledgling relationship. Actually dating his boss for real felt strange when they were in the office. He knew it probably always would, to some extent. Lucy had rightfully been upfront with him about the fact that nothing could change as far as their working relationship was concerned just because they happened to be dating. She was the boss, he was an employee, and they both had jobs to do.

Other than that, the only negative Bobby could think of was having Lucy's staff around all the time. That really was annoying at times. 'Can I get anything for you?' 'Is there anything you need?' It was all he ever seemed to hear, and it didn't sit right with him at all. But this was a new world he was living in now. Whether Lucy or not liked to think it or act like it, she was a person of much higher standing than him, and she was used to living life a different way. It was taking some adjusting to for him to become a part of it.

"Where is she, anyway?" Bobby muttered to himself as he got up out of what was now his incredibly comfy chair in front of the fire in the great room. Lucy had stood up from the chair opposite his about ten minutes earlier and said she needed to 'nip upstairs'. He knew 'nipping upstairs' was a curious English phrase that meant she was going to run up there to do something quickly. So why had whatever it was taken more than ten minutes already? He had decided it was best to go and find out.

On the way out of the great room, he heard a vacuum cleaner running over on the other side of the house, probably in the living room that Lucy barely seemed to use. Used or not, it was Jo the housekeeper's job to have a complete run through of all the rooms every couple of days, to make sure everywhere was spotless. It was a job Bobby would have hated, but that was why he didn't do it.

He trudged up the staircase that was wide enough that he couldn't reach one side of it from the other. It was grandiose, as was everything else in the house. Initially, Bobby had felt out of place staying in the place. Now, though, he was starting to feel a little more at home.

Reaching the first floor, he stopped and listened. There was no sound apart from the distant vacuum cleaner.

"Lucy?" he called, suddenly wondering if she was okay.

"In here."

Her voice had come from her bedroom. Or was it their bedroom now? No, it was hers. They were at the point in the relationship where he was staying in her home, not living with her. It would be a while before the time came to talk about that decision.

"You okay?" Bobby asked as he walked towards the open bedroom door.

"Yeah. I'm glad you came up here though."

"Why?" he asked. A moment after posing the question, he entered the bedroom and saw the answer for himself. Lucy was walking towards him, now wearing that vintage dress from the movie premiere. Even better, she had put the leather opera gloves on. He immediately knew where this was going.

"Oh man, that's sexy as..."

Lucy reached him, kicked the bedroom door shut and pushed him against it in one smooth motion. As soon as his back was against the door, she clamped one of her gloved hands over his mouth, taking him by surprise. He could see in her eyes that she was turned on and wanted to be in control. She would get no complaints from him.

"Sshhh," Lucy purred. "Jo is downstairs. I wouldn't want her to hear you having the time of your life."

"Mmm," Bobby moaned into the soft leather, feeling himself hardening already.

"Mmmmm," Lucy purred herself when she moved her other hand between his legs and felt his stiffness under his pants. "I promised you a hand job, didn't I?"

"Mmm hmm," Bobby confirmed, unable to nod with his head pressed against the door.

"Okay then, be quiet and get on the bed. I know you've been doing a lot of thinking about these sexy, sexy gloves. I'm going to let you enjoy them all you want."

Just hearing her talk like that was driving Bobby wild. The more he had thought about those damn gloves, the more they had turned him on. And now here she was wearing them again at last. All he wanted to do was touch them; to feel them touching him.

Lucy removed her hand from his mouth, took his hand and led him to the bed. She felt him stroke her hand with his fingers, but he looked a little bit embarrassed by the fetish they had found out that he had.

"Don't be shy about it," she told him softly. "I like that you like them. It makes me feel sexy when I wear them."

"You sure look sexy wearing them," Bobby assured her, now rock hard.

"Take your clothes off and get on the bed," she instructed.

Bobby undressed and lay down on his back, head on the pillows. Part of him longed for her to get right to the long-awaited hand job, but he knew he was going to be made to wait a while for that. He could tell by the way Lucy smiled at him as she sat down beside him on the bed, side on to him. Not for the first time, her natural beauty almost took his breath away.

"Fuck, you're so hot," he said, literally aching for her.

"Thank you, baby," Lucy said in her most innocent voice. She reached over and lightly stroked his cheek, wanting him to feel the leather against his skin. She rested her other hand on his chest and said, "Now, tell Ms Thorne what you like about these gloves?"

"Ms Thorne, huh?" he asked, liking the idea of referring to her that way while she was pleasuring him.

"That's right," she purred, stroking his other cheek, then running her fingers over his mouth. "Now talk. What do you like about them?"

Bobby moved his hand to rest on top of the one she had put on his chest, letting out a satisfied sigh as his fingers stroked the leather. "It's hard to say," he began.

Lucy leaned down and started kissing his neck softly, still stroking his face. "Try," she breathed in between kisses. "Ms Thorne wants to know what you like so that she can give you the best experience."

"They just feel so nice. So soft. So smooth. They look amazing. The way they shine in the light. Even the smell is kind of sexy."

"I see," Lucy said seductively. "You like the way they feel against your skin?" While stroking his face with one hand, she moved the other one free of his hand and shifted it lower, making him quiver in anticipation. But she didn't go a low as he wanted, instead rubbing the bottom of his stomach.

"And do you like Ms Thorne being in charge of you?"

"Right now? Hell yeah," he gasped, eyes now closed as he focused everything on feeling what she was doing to him. "So long as Ms Thorne comes through on the hand job she's been promising for so long, she can do whatever she wants."

"I think teasing is the right word," she whispered, running her hand down the inside of his right thigh, lightly touching the tender skin.

"Definitely teasing now," he groaned. "Fuck, that feels nice."

"I've barely started yet."

"I know. That's the best thing about it."

Lucy giggled in a manner Bobby hadn't heard before. She was really loving what they were doing, he realised. She spent a couple of minutes stroking him everywhere apart from the place he desired the most.

"Okay then, sit up for Ms Thorne."

Wondering what was coming next, Bobby did as she asked.

Lucy moved around to sit behind him, pulling him tightly to her with one arm, and moving on to the moment he had been waiting so long for.

Over the next few minutes, Bobby enjoyed one of his most erotic experiences in recent memory. Feeling her gloved hand caressing him in a masterful way was every bit the turn on that he had imagined it would be.

"There we go," Lucy breathed into his ear when he began approaching his climax. She continued in the same manner, talking him across the line. "There we go. Mmmm. There we go."

When it was over, she moved out from behind up and got off the bed, a satisfied smile on her face.

Meanwhile, Bobby lay back down, looking up at her while he tried to regain his breath.

"I need to go wash this off," she reported, showing him her glove with the palm covered in his semen. "I hope that was everything you wanted it to be?"

"There's only one more thing I could possibly ask for."

Lucy raised her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to go on.

"A promise that we can do that again," he said hopefully.

Lucy leaned over and gave him a light peck on the lips. "Baby, I'll keep these gloves for use only the bedroom. I can easily buy more. And I'll wear them for you as often as you want."

With that, she headed into the en-suite bathroom, and Bobby heard water start running. Feeling delightfully content, there was only one thing he could say to himself: "What a woman."


	13. Chapter 13

"I thought I'd go with something simple. I wouldn't want to look overdressed," Lucy said as she walked out of the bathroom in her and Bobby's hotel suite. She was wearing a black WWE T-shirt, dark blue jeans and black boots. She had her hair in a simple ponytail, completing the look with modest make up and red lip gloss. They were less than an hour away from their two hour long signing session at the Sunday Wrestlemania Axxess session.

On the other side of the room, Bobby was standing in front of a mirror, fixing his shirt collar. He had gone for a smart-casual look with a light blue shirt and very dark blue pants, with brown shoes. He turned around to look at Lucy and nodded his approval. "Sexy as ever," he opined.

"I think you preferred the look from the other night thought," she replied coyly.

She was referring to what she had worn for their appearance at the annual Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night. Vintage looks were her favourite, and since she had discovered Bobby felt the same way, the choice to go for that style had been an easy one for her to make. This time she had selected a black dress with a fairly short skirt, accompanied, mainly for Bobby's benefit, by dark red leather opera gloves. Predictably, she had nearly knocked him dead when he had seen her, and he had been very attentive all night, particularly when it came to holding her hand. Lucy found it adorable, and also enjoyed how sexy it made her feel when she wore an outfit like that.

"No doubt about that," he said, a hint of wistfulness in his tone. "I think outfits like that are only for when we're out at special events, though."

"Or in the bedroom," she added in a sultry manner.

"Is that you promising me something, Thorne?" he asked, walking around the bed towards her.

"Not if you call me Thorne it's not," she said sternly. "Ms Thorne or boss will do."

Bobby reached her and took her in his arms. "In our bedroom, you ain't no boss of me."

"That's not been my experience so far," she countered, looking up into his eyes.

"Christ, you're so sexy," he breathed. "The things I could do to you right now."

As much as she loved the sound of that, Lucy pushed herself away from him. "Well, you'll have to wait, mister. We've got Axxess, then a small thing called Wrestlemania today."

"Then it'll have to wait until after the after party, won't it?"

"Yes, it will. Now come on, Mr Horny, before you make us late."

"It was you who brought up Friday night, not me."

Lucy paused for a second, realising that he was correct. "You're right," she said before shrugging. "Oh well, it'll give you something to think about."

Bobby grunted a laugh. "Don't you just know it."

With that, they gathered their things and left the room to go and meet the driver who would be taking them to the convention centre where Axxess was taking place.

* * *

It had struck Bobby while he waited with Lucy to go out into the convention centre at the correct time that it said a lot about her style of management that quite a few of his fellow superstars had felt comfortable coming up to her and chatting away with her like she was another member of the roster rather than the Chairwoman. For her part, Lucy seemed to be having a great time, laughing and joking with people. He hoped she kept up that attitude with the fans, and was fairly sure she would. It would only help her already good reputation with the audience.

It also amused him that his colleagues still seemed totally oblivious to the fact that he was really dating Lucy. The way their angle had transitioned into reality had turned out to be perfect in that regard. Fans had assumed he was really dating her when he hadn't been, and now that he was, the roster assumed it was all still part of the angle, since they avoided kissing each other and showing affection at moments like this.

A member of the security team opened the nearby double doors which led out into the hall where the fans were already waiting, and superstars began filing out there, in no particular hurry.

"Right then," Lucy said, turning to Bobby. "Are we doing this?"

"We're doing it," he smiled. "I have a feeling there are plenty of people excited as hell to meet you."

Lucy gave him a dazzling smile. "I'm excited to meet them. I'm not saying I'll make it a regular thing, but this once? It should be a great time."

Bobby took her hand and they walked through the doors. As soon as they entered the raucous exhibition hall, he saw some fans standing behind the barriers nearby, hoping for some quick freebie interactions. Predictably, it wasn't working out well for them. Nonetheless, the started calling his and Lucy's names.

"Hi! Good to see you!" Lucy called out, giving them a wave.

In that moment, Bobby found himself chuckling.

"What?" Lucy asked, looking at him with a grin on her face.

"You'd make a great politician, you know that? You've got some natural kind of… something that makes people like you, and you know how to act to keep it that way."

Lucy giggled. "I wasn't acting, I was being nice to people."

Bobby burst out laughing, at himself this time. "Oh. That's told me, I guess."

"I guess it has," she replied, also laughing.

At that moment, they walked around the back of the Connor's Cure stage and into sight for everyone in their line. Seeing them laughing together had to have made a good first impression, helping with the angle that was no longer an angle, yet still was an angle. It was a confusing situation to be in, Bobby thought as a cheer went up to greet them.

Bobby stood aside to let Lucy climb the steps onto the stage ahead of him. Once she was up there, she shook hands with the couple of employees who were there to keep the fans in order and to take pictures for them.

In line with the boss's orders, Axxess sessions no longer had tables for the superstars to sit behind. They were required to stand for the two hour session, with a small high table on the stage for items to be put on for signatures. There were a few bottles of water, some sharpie pens and a bottle of hand sanitizer on another table next to the first one.

After Bobby shook hands with the two employees, he went and stood next to Lucy. The idea was that the fans would be getting pictures with them together. "I'm ready when you are," he said.

"Let's go," Lucy said to the employee who was in charge of admitting the fans to the stage.

A group of two overweight guys in their twenties were at the front of the line. They had been talking to each other, so Lucy assumed they were friends. Even so, the first one came up onto the stage by himself. He was carrying something in a bag – something to be signed, she assumed.

"Hi, Lucy," the fan said, approaching her first. He sounded quite nervous.

"Hello. How are you?" she asked with a smile, trying to put him at ease.

"Good," he said shyly. She got the impression that he had wanted to go in for a hug, but wasn't sure if she would react positively or negatively to that. "I, uh, brought something for you."

Lucy raised her eyebrows in excitement. "For me? What is it?"

The fan put his bag down and pulled a white T-shirt out of it. He opened it out to reveal the custom made design that he'd had printed on it. It was a picture of Lucy from the neck up, with a stern expression on her face. She had no idea where he had taken it from. Incorporated into the design was the Thorne Enterprises logo and the name Lucy Thorne under the picture in fancy red lettering. Although it was something she would never choose to wear, Lucy felt humbled by the thought and effort that had been put into the gift. The fact that a WWE fan would choose to buy her a gift at all was staggering to her.

"What do you think?" the fan asked hopefully.

"It's wonderful," Lucy said, seeing Bobby smile out of the corner of her eye at how pronounced her English accent had sounded. She took the fan by surprise by giving him a hug. "Thank you. That's really thoughtful of you."

"Oh, man," he said, taken aback by her hugging him. "It's just, uh, I always wanted to meet you since you bought WWE. I had to jump on this opportunity."

"Well, I'm glad you did," she said as she took a half step back. "How about I hold the shirt up for the picture?"

"Yeah," he said appreciatively. "I don't suppose I could get the picture just with you?"

"Have at it," Bobby said, amused by the fact that he had become an unwanted extra. He walked over to the corner of the stage, out of the shot that the guy with the camera was getting ready to take.

Moments later, with more thanks from Lucy, the fan was leaving the stage, looking flustered by the whole experience. Bobby walked back over to his girl and laughed. "I'm not sure who has a bigger thing for you, me or that guy."

"Oh, shush," Lucy said playfully. "I'm sure there will be plenty of girls coming up here who want my arse moving out of the way so they can get a pic with you."

* * *

_Wrestlemania 36 – April 5th 2020_

The triple threat Universal Championship match between Finn Balor, Seth Rollins and Bobby Roode had been chosen as the main event of the night, largely because of the finish that had been planned for it.

When the match had originally been discussed in creative meetings, the idea had been to have Bobby win the title as the culmination of his heel turn, with the fans raging about the fact that he was receiving inside help from the boss due to his relationship. It was lucky that Lucy had been talked into changing tack, because a heel reaction was the furthest thing from what Bobby winning was likely to produce. He had been cheered throughout the match, even over Finn Balor, who was a popular babyface himself.

The finishing sequence began when Balor was able to hit the Coup de Grace off the top rope on Seth Rollins. He made what should have been the deciding cover, but Rollins' manager Zelina Vega had gotten up onto the apron, distracting the referee before he could make the count.

With the fans booing Vega aggressively, Lucy Thorne made her way through the crowd to ringside almost unnoticed and climbed over the ringside barricade. Only once she was over the barrier did people start going crazy, realising who it was. Hearing the explosion of cheers as she marched over in the direction of Vega gave Lucy goosebumps like she had never experienced before, but she couldn't convey any emotion other than anger, since she was there to put an end to Vega's cheating.

Balor had gotten up from making the cover on Rollins to remonstrate with Vega. They were both standing by the ropes when Lucy got there and yanked Zelina's legs out from under her, sending her falling face first onto the edge of the apron.

Simultaneously, Balor turned around, walking right into a Glorious DDT from Bobby, who had just sprung to his feet while the Irishman was distracted. The sold out crowd at Lincoln Financial Field erupted, realising they were about to see the result they had hoped for. And not only was Roode going to win, Lucy Thorne was out there to help him do it!

As Bobby made a cover, Lucy hoped the commentary team of Renee Young and Corey Graves were doing a great job of selling the moment, and her debut.

Everyone in the stadium seemed to count along with the referee.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

There was another eruption as Bobby was confirmed as the new Universal Champion. Lucy could barely hear the sound of the bell or the first few seconds of his theme music. With a glare down at the fallen Vega that she knew was caught on camera, Lucy climbed into the ring to celebrate with her man, who was on his knees, clutching the red belt that the referee had just handed to him.

Lucy walked over to Bobby, crouched down and hugged him. "Congrats, baby. You deserve it. I'm very proud of you," she told him, meaning every word.

"Thanks, babe," he said in delight, hugging her with one arm and raising the belt with the other. "This really is glorious!"

"Oh god," Lucy laughed. "I can't believe you just said that."


	14. Chapter 14

"Just take a moment and decide if you're sure this is what you want to do before we go in there," Bobby said. He was standing with Lucy in a hallway, not far from the entrance to the catering area. They were backstage before the highlight of the wrestling year that was the Raw after Wrestlemania. The previous night, after a few drinks at the Wrestlemania after party, Lucy had surprised him by saying that she wanted to inform the roster about their relationship. The announcement had surprised Bobby, but she had reasoned that she would rather just tell people than have gossip and rumours start at some point behind their backs. He had to admit, that felt like an inevitability, considering the way everyone in the locker room liked to sneakily talk about their colleagues.

"I am sure," Lucy replied. "It feels like the right time to do it. I've definitely got nothing to hide. There's no shame in the fact that we're seeing each other. Besides, it feels like there's something poetic about confirming our real relationship to the guys on the same night that we're going to go out there and confirm our kayfabe relationship to the audience."

Bobby smiled. He had to admit that he liked that aspect of it. And in any case, he didn't really give a damn what the locker room thought of his relationship. His skin was much thicker than that. Both he and Lucy were divorced and free to see whoever they chose, so no one had any moral ground to judge them. If she was determined to make the announcement, he would go with it. "Alright. I'm ready when you are," he told her.

"No time like the present," she said, holding out her hand for him to take, intending them to walk into catering hand in hand.

Bobby took her hand in his, and they walked the short distance down the hallway to catering. When they entered the room, they found the usual scene of groups of friends sitting at tables or standing around, talking as they ate or drank coffee. The entire roster were not in there, of course, but the news would quickly spread to those who were not in attendance, and it was easier to announce it this way than calling everyone together especially for the purpose.

"If I can have everyone's attention for a minute?" Lucy called out, still holding Bobby's hand.

Her request quickly brought the room to silence, and everyone faced her, respectfully waiting to hear what she had to say to them. Bobby glanced at her, wondering how exactly she was going to phrase the news.

Lucy also glanced at him, and she smiled when their eyes met. After a second, she turned back to face the room. "Bobby and I wanted to let you know that we're not only dating each other for the purposes of the show anymore. We're actually dating each other, and have been for a number of weeks. We, uh, just wanted to put it out there so you know. I'm sure you'll let those who are here know on our behalf?"

There was a moment of silence before Kevin Owens spoke up. "I'm pretty sure everyone already does know, guys."

That took Bobby by surprise, and Lucy looked at him with the same emotion on her face. "Wait, really?" Bobby asked. There were a few murmurs of laughter at their reaction.

"Yeah, really," Owens said. "It's been pretty obvious for a while. You're not that good of an actor, Bobby."

Laughter filled the room at that comment, with Lucy and Bobby joining in. Any nervousness that might have been in the back of their minds was gone now thanks to Owen's quip and the laughter from everyone else. Not only did most people not seem to have a problem with them dating, although a few were likely jealous, the relationship hadn't been kept secret by the angle in the way they had thought. Apparently, Bobby realised, if anyone had been getting things mixed up because of the crossover between angle and reality, it had been him and Lucy. How bizarre!

"The least you can do is give us a kiss!" someone shouted from the back of the room.

There was another burst of laughter, followed by the outbreak of a "Kiss!" chant, which everyone there joined in with.

Lucy's pale skin tone didn't do her any favours when she felt embarrassed. Her cheeks turned a distinct shade of pink as she turned to Bobby.

"You're blushing, Ms Thorne," he said, trying not to grin, and failing.

"Shut up and kiss me before I die of embarrassment."

"You're the boss," he quipped. With that, he took her in his arms and gave her a passionate kiss, causing the room to fill with cheers.

* * *

_Monday Night Raw – April 6th 2020_

The most raucous and unpredictable Raw episode of the year began with an even more emphatic and explosive pyro display than usual, with the fans cheering like crazy. They continued losing their minds as a camera panned across the arena, with the Raw theme playing.

"Welcome, everybody, to Monday Night Raw!" Renee Young exclaimed on commentary. "Renee Young here, alongside Corey Graves, and what a night we have in store tonight. This place is rocking, on the back of possibly the greatest Wrestlemania of all time, and Corey, we have ourselves a new Universal Champion."

Before Graves could respond, the Raw theme faded out and was replaced by James Brown's The Boss – the theme music that Lucy had chosen for herself. The largely British crowd went insane, nearly taking the roof off the building to welcome their fellow countrywoman.

"Wait! Can it be?" Graves cried.

"It is! It's her!" Renee exclaimed. "Lucy Thorne is here on Raw!"

With a roar of approval, Lucy walked out onto the stage through the lingering smoke from the opening pyro display and started making her way down to the ring.

"The boss is here, and she was at Wrestlemania last night, too," Graves said. "Indeed, many people are saying that the only reason Bobby Roode became the new Universal Champion was because of Lucy's Thorne's interference in the main event."

"But Lucy didn't interfere in the main event," Renee objected. "Actually, she stopped Zelina Vega interfering in it."

"Causing a distraction that led to Roode getting the win," Graves added. "And then Thorne and Roode celebrated the win together, with a hug right in the middle of the ring."

"That last part at least is true," Renee said. "Rumours have been swirling for some time about Lucy Thorne and Bobby Roode possibly being in a relationship. It appeared, to me at least, that we saw confirmation of that at Wrestlemania."

Lucy stepped through the ropes into the ring, drawing her third loud ovation. She walked across the ring to fetch a microphone, and after a moment, her music faded out. A chant of "Lucy Thorne!" filled the arena almost instantly.

Waiting for the chant to subside, Lucy stood in the ring with a smile on her face. No one watching could have doubted that she was genuinely happy. It simply radiated from her.

Eventually, the chant began to die and Lucy was able to raise her microphone. "It feels good to be here tonight in Philly!" she announced emphatically.

"I second that!" Renee cried over another loud cheer.

Lucy's purpose in opening the show had been to get the fans fired up before making an introduction for Bobby. "Allow me to introduce you to the new WWE Universal Champion, the glorious Bobby Roode!"

The fans went crazy again. Bobby's music began to play, with the crowd primed to join in with the popular and catchy song.

Bobby entered the arena and started going through his entrance routine. Unbeknownst to her, Lucy was shown at one point, singing along with everyone else.

When Bobby posed at the bottom of the entrance ramp and the word glorious appeared on the big screen, bright white pyros went off on either side of the stage with a thunderous explosion.

"What a celebration for the new Universal Champion," Renee said. "Everyone's on their feet, singing, having an awesome time. There's nothing like the Raw after Wrestlemania."

Roode walked up the ring steps and climbed through the ropes, finding Lucy applauding him. She walked towards him and they hugged, receiving a cheer of approval for it.

After they parted, Lucy handed Bobby her microphone and he took centre stage. He spent a moment looking out at the crowd with a smile on his face before speaking. "Just to clarify for everyone what you saw last night at Wrestlemania, yes, Bobby Roode is the Universal Champion."

A cheer went up again, and Lucy was shown applauding once more.

"And yes, I am dating the beautiful Lucy Thorne."

That confirmation was greeted with an even louder cheer, which intensified further still when the new power couple exchanged a brief kiss, to yet another cheer.

"Thorne and Roode are together, and the WWE Universe loves it!" Renee cried.

Corey made a groaning noise that demonstrated his disagreement.

"And I have to tell you," Bobby went on, "that those things make me feel absolutely..."

He crouched down and began working the crowd up to deliver his trademark word. Lucy walked over and stood behind him so that she could join in with the upcoming flourish. When it came, everyone in the arena shouted as loudly as they could.

"Glorious!"

END


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